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The Teen Brain:
Is That Why They Do What They Do?
Kerri Nolan, PhD
Nov. 16, 2011
Family & Education
Series, 2011-12
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How does the brain work and change?
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Is the teen brain different from other brains?
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Why do teenagers act the way they do?
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What is technology doing to their brains?
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How can we maximize the teen brain’s potential?
Brain Pop
Username: countryday1
Password: rainforest
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Hominid brains have evolved and grown from
400 g 3-4 million years, to their present size
of 1400 g (1.4kg).
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The bodies of Homo erectus (1.7 million years
ago) were not substantially smaller than
humans of the last century, yet their brains
were nearly half the size.
http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/insidebrain/brainevolution.htm
Mammal
Blue whale
Lion
Rat
Human
Body weight Brain weight
60 000 kg
6kg
200 kg
200g
200g
3g
70 kg
1.3 kg
Brain %
0.01%
0.1%
1.5%
1.9%
http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/insidebrain/brainevolution.htm
Brain scanning techniques like
functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) allow scientists
to investigate healthy live
brains. Two of the most
important findings are that our
brains are plastic meaning they
not only create new neurons
but also can change their
structure throughout a lifetime
and that frontal lobes are the
most plastic area.
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/01/11/it-isnot-only-cars-that-deserve-good-maintenancebrain-care-101/
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At the beginning of life when the immature
brain organizes itself.
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In case of brain injury to compensate for lost
functions or maximize remaining functions.
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Throughout adulthood whenever something
new is learned and memorized.
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/02/26/brain-plasticity-how-learning-changesyour-brain/
“We Learn . . .
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss
80% of what we experience
95% of what we teach others.”
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/we-learn-of-what-we-read-of-what-we-hear-of-what/397216.html
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A brain growth spurt begins just before puberty
in which connections between cells are either
strengthened or die away depending on use.
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This leads to the "use it or lose it" principle.
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The pruning of unused connections is most
predominant in the prefrontal cortex, the part of
the brain critical to information synthesis.
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Parts of the brain
continue to be wired
until a person is about
25 years old.
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Neural plasticity allows
the brain to find new
pathways in the event
of brain injury.
“If a teen is doing music, sports or academics, those are
the connections that will be hard wired. If they're lying
on the couch or playing video games or MTV, those are
the cells and connections that are going to survive."
http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/Mi
ddleSchoolJournal/September2002/Art
icle10/tabid/418/Default.aspx
The adolescent brain is fully developed.
Fiction.
The prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain
that controls planning, working memory,
organization, and processing of information,
does not finish maturing until about age 25.
http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/September2002/Article10/tabid/418/Default.
aspx
Frontal lobes, the part of our
brains right behind the
forehead, controls executive
functions which determine our
ability to pay attention, plan for
the future and direct behavior
toward achieving goals. They
are critical for adapting to new
situations. We exercise them
best by learning and mastering
new skills.
This part of the brain is
delicate: our frontal lobes
wait until our mid to late 20s
to fully mature. They are
also the first part of our
brain to start to decline,
usually by middle age.
. . .I think that this part of the brain that is helping
organization, planning and strategizing is not
done being built yet ... [It's] not that the teens are
stupid or incapable. It's sort of unfair to expect
them to have adult levels of organizational skills
or decision making before their brain is finished
being built. . .
Jay Giedd
http://www.edinformatics.com/news/teenage_brains.htm
The Wiring of the Adolescent Brain
Adolescence is a developmental period
characterized by suboptimal decisions and
actions that are associated with an increased
incidence of unintentional injuries, violence,
substance abuse, unintended pregnancy, and
sexually transmitted diseases.
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The National Institutes of Health
A few researchers have begun
viewing recent brain findings in a
brighter light colored by
evolutionary theory. The resulting
account of the adolescent brain—
call it the adaptive-adolescent
story—casts the teen less as a
rough draft than as an exquisitely
sensitive, highly adaptable creature
wired almost perfectly for the job of
moving from the safety of home
into the complicated world outside.
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.
Darwin’s theory of evolution proposes that
animals well suited to their environment
survive - and pass on their genes.
Animals that are not well suited perish before
they have offspring. Their mixture of genes die
with them.
http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/insidebrain/brainevolution.htm
As neuroscientist B. J. Casey puts it, "We're so
used to seeing adolescence as a problem. But
the more we learn about what really makes this
period unique, the more adolescence starts to
seem like a highly functional, even adaptive
period. It's exactly what you'd need to do the
things you have to do then.“
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.
This view will likely sit better with teens. More
important, it sits better with biology's most
fundamental principle, that of natural selection.
Selection is hell on dysfunctional traits. If
adolescence is essentially a collection of them—
angst, idiocy, and haste; impulsiveness,
selfishness, and reckless bumbling—then how did
those traits survive selection? They couldn't—not
if they were the period's most fundamental or
consequential features.
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.
Adolescents are highly
sensitive to dopamine, a
neurotransmitter (or
chemical messenger in the
brain) that “appears to
prime and fire reward
circuits and aids in learning
patterns and making
decisions.”
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.
Oxytocin is a hormone
produced in nerve cells
that also acts as a
neurotransmitter in the
brain. It’s best know for
its role in reproduction.
The teen brain is attuned
to oxytocin which makes
social connections more
rewarding.
We court risk more avidly as teens than at any
other time . . . The period from roughly 15 to 25
brings peaks in all sorts of risky ventures and ugly
outcomes. This age group dies of accidents of
almost every sort (other than work accidents) at
high rates. Most long-term drug or alcohol abuse
starts during adolescence, and even people who
later drink responsibly often drink too much as
teens . . . In the U.S., one in three teen deaths is
from car crashes, many involving alcohol.
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.
Impulsivity generally drops throughout life,
starting at about age 10, but this love of the
thrill peaks at around age 15. And although
sensation seeking can lead to dangerous
behaviors, it can also generate positive ones:
The urge to meet more people, for instance,
can create a wider circle of friends, which
generally makes us healthier, happier, safer,
and more successful.
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.
We all like new and
exciting things, but we
never value them more
highly than we do during
adolescence. Here we hit
a high in what behavioral
scientists call sensation
seeking: the hunt for the
neural buzz, the jolt of the
unusual or unexpected.
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct.
2011.
As developmental psychologist Laurence Steinberg
points out, even 14- to 17-year-olds—the biggest
risk takers—use the same basic cognitive strategies
that adults do, and they usually reason their way
through problems just as well as adults . . . Teens
take more risks not because they don't understand
the dangers but because they weigh risk versus
reward differently: In situations where risk can get
them something they want, they value the reward
more heavily than adults do.
Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.
The combination of
heightened responsiveness
to rewards and immaturity
in behavioral control areas
may bias adolescents to
seek immediate rather than
long-term gains, perhaps
explaining their increase in
risky decision making and
emotional reactivity.
The National Institutes of Health
"Perhaps not since early man first discovered
how to use a tool has the human brain been
affected so quickly and so dramatically. As the
brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new
technological skills, it drifts away from
fundamental social skills."
- Gary Small, UCLA neuroscientist
http://www.livescience.com/culture/090224-internet-brain.html
Sites such as Facebook
and Twitter are said to
shorten attention spans,
encourage instant
gratification and make
young people more selfcentered. Repeated
exposure could effectively
'rewire' the brain.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websitesharm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html
Three-quarters (74%) of all
7-12 graders in the United
States say they have a
profile on a social
networking site.
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm
"My fear is that these technologies are
infantilising the brain into the state of small
children who are attracted by buzzing noises
and bright lights, who have a small attention
span and who live for the moment.“
Susan Greenfield, Oxford University neuroscientist and director of the Royal
Institution
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warningparents-neuroscientist.html
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Multitaskers don't just lose the minutes they
spend on sites such as Facebook; they also
lose time getting reoriented with each
interruption.
That means the homework itself can take
between 25 and 400 percent longer
depending on the complexity and similarity
of the tasks.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/11/gentech/main1699513_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
Miles O'Brien: This is Your Teen's Brain on
Technology and Multitasking | The Rundown
News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS
Chapter 1:
Distracted by Everything
Chapter 2:
What’s it Doing to their Brains?
PBS Frontline -- Digital Nation Video
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Kids need to learn new digital skills to survive
and thrive in our fast-changing society.
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Researchers at the University of Minnesota
asked teens what they learn from social
networking sites. They listed technology
skills, creativity, being open to new or diverse
views, and communication skills.
http://www.livescience.com/culture/090224-internet-brain.html
"Students are developing a positive attitude
towards using technology systems, editing and
customizing content and thinking about online
design and layout.
They're also sharing creative original work like
poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible
use of information and technology.”
- Christine Greenhow, researcher at University of Minnesota
http://www.livescience.com/culture/090224-internet-brain.html
Children who use the Internet show gains in
cognitive abilities such as memory, spatial and
logical problem solving, critical thinking,
concentration, abstraction and comprehension.
Through the use of the Internet, children’s
language and literacy development is often
promoted, allowing for greater gains in verbal and
nonverbal skills.
http://www.verdick.org/child-development-and-the-internet/child-dev-pos
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Only about three in ten young people say they
have rules about how much time they can spend
watching TV (28%) or playing video games
(30%), and 36% say the same about using the
computer.
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But when parents do set limits, children spend
less time with media: those with any media rules
consume nearly 3 hours less media per day (2:52)
than those with no rules.
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm
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Maximizing the brain’s potential simply
means to improve the brain’s ability to
process and retain knowledge and skills.
Some brains are better at doing this than
others are.
Both genetic makeup and environment affect
the brain’s potential for learning.
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Drug or alcohol abuse
Physical or emotional
abuse
Live in or near toxic sites
Neglect
Separation from parents
Traumatic brain injury
Poor diet
Jensen, Eric. Enriching the Brain: How to Maximize every Learner’s Potential. San Francisco:
JohnWiley & Sons, 2006.
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Learning a new
language
Participation in sports
Learning to learn
Skill building
Entering a new
environment
Phonemic awareness
training
Restoration of a sense
Developing certain habits as teens will
help their brains be effective and healthy,
and continue helping later in life when
they become adults.
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/08/22/10-habits-of-highly-effective-brains/
Learn what is the It in Use It or Lose It. A
basic understanding will serve teens well to
appreciate their brain’s beauty as a living
and constantly developing dense forest
with billions of neurons and synapses.
Take care of nutrition. The
brain only weighs 2% of
body mass but consumes
over 20% of the oxygen
and nutrients we intake.
Teens don’t need
nutritional supplements;
just make sure they don’t
stuff themselves with too
much of the “bad stuff”.
Remember that the
brain is part of the
body. Things that
exercise the body
can also help sharpen
the brain: physical
exercise enhances
the formation and
development of
nerve cells.
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Teen-agers are notorious for going to bed
late and then struggling to get up in the
morning. Sufficient sleep (8 or 9 hours) is
imperative for the brain to process all it has
done while the teen has been awake.
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Zzzzzz's
Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by
external events or by a person’s own thoughts, actually
kill neurons and prevent the creation of new ones.
Explore, travel.
Adapting to new
locations forces
people to pay
attention to the
environment.
Develop and
maintain stimulating
friendships. We are
“social animals”, and
need social
interaction.
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Do Your Teens Seem Like Aliens? FRONTLINE
| PBS
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Talking With Your Teen | FRONTLINE | PBS