Don't blame teenage behaviour on hormones
For many people, their teenage years can be a difficult time.
There are so many distractions, so many tough decisions to make, erratic emotions and older people just don't seem to understand you. Paradoxically, although they will have been through it all themselves, parents of teenagers can find it very difficult, because sometimes they feel that they become the target of rebelliousness and argumentativeness.
For years people have attributed the moodiness of teenagers to the hormonal changes that take place during adolescence.
Yet while this may be part of the explanation, recent advances in neuro-science have shown that the way the brain matures is also highly relevant. Indeed, using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), scientists have found that the teenage brain actually seems to work differently from that of the adult.
Scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, USA, recently reported an interesting study in which they followed the progress of 400 children, who had MRI scans every two years as they grew up.
They found that by the age of six the brain has reached about 95 per cent of its adult size. The grey matter, the thinking part of the brain, continues to thicken throughout childhood. It does this by building up connections, growing like the branches of a tree, with new twigs and shoots. This thickening peaks at about 11 in girls and at 12 in boys.
During adolescence an amazing thing happens.
There come waves of 'brain-pruning,' whereby one per cent of the grey matter is lost per year until about 20 years. This pruning trims unused neural connections that may have been overproduced during the childhood growth spurts.
This brain-pruning and organising of connections seems to relate to the moodiness of teenagers.
The maturing process takes place first in the sensory and motor areas of the brain, followed by language and spatial awareness regions, then finally in those parts associated with cerebral functions. The frontal lobe matures last. This is involved in the control of impulses, judgement and decision-making. It also controls and processes emotional information sent from part of the brain called the amygdala.
The effect of this during the brain-pruning of adolescence is to make the individual more prone to the moody behaviour and irritability that so characterise the teenage years.
In addition, decision-making can be erratic and less logical than one's parents would wish.
Finally, the lack of impulse control may also account for risky behaviour that characterises this time of life.
It is a vulnerable time of life that seems to be a function of the continuously developing brain.
And it isn't just about hormones.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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