Dont Think Ahead Structure
By: Brittany Taylor
1.Not planning
Their decision-making can be overly influenced by emotions, because their brains rely more on the limbic system (the emotional seat of the brain) than the more rational prefrontal cortex, explained Feinstein."This condition of adolescent competence can be very confusing for parents," Johnson said, meaning that sometimes teens do things, like punch a wall or drive too fast, when, if asked, they clearly know better.”Adults drink more frequently than teens, but when teens drink they tend to drink larger quantities than adults. There is evidence to suggest that the adolescent brain responds to alcohol differently than the adult brain, perhaps helping to explain the elevated risk of binge drinking in youth. Drinking in youth, and intense drinking are both risk factors for later alcohol dependence. Findings on the developing brain should help clarify the role of the changing brain in youthful drinking, and the relationship between youth drinking and the risk of addiction later in life.
The Evolved Teenager
If you have ever thought that the choices teenagers make are all about exploring and pushing limits, you are on to something. Experts believe that this tendency marks a necessary phase in teen development. The process helps prepare teenagers to confront the world on their own. It is something all humans have evolved to experience — yes, teens everywhere go through this exploratory period. Nor is it unique to people: Even laboratory mice experience a similar phase during their development.
For example, laboratory experiments show that young mice stay close by their mothers for safety. As mice grow, their behavior does too. “When they reach puberty, they’re like, ‘I’m gonna start checking out how this environment looks without my mom,’” explains Beatriz Luna, of the University of Pittsburgh.
As a developmental cognitive neuroscientist, Luna studies those changes that occur in the brain as children develop into adults. She and other researchers are showing how the teen experience can lead to powerful advantages later in life. Take mice again: Young mice that explore most tend to live longest — that is, unless a cat eats them, Luna adds.
So they do the next best thing; Researchers scan teen brains while their owners are thinking, learning and making critical decisions.
Eveline Crone is a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who studies how the brain develops. To do so, Crone uses a huge, high-tech instrument called a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The scanner relies on a powerful magnet and radio waves to create detailed images of the brains of Crone’s young volunteers. It is painless and safe. All that Crone’s adolescent subjects have to do is lie back — and play a few games.
Peer pressure
Kids who do not think ahead
Drinking and driving
About 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year as a result of underage drinking, 1,900 of those deaths are from auto accidents. About one in three high school students has been a passenger in a car driven by someone who had consumed alcohol. Alcohol is involved in 31% of teenage car accident fatalities.
Frontal Lobe
Thalamus
Prefrontal Lobe
Lack Of Loigic
The scans revealed unexpectedly late changes in the volume of gray matter, which forms the thin, folding outer layer or cortex of the brain. Gray matter is made up of the cell bodies of neurons, the nerve fibers that project from them, and support cells. The cortex is where the processes of thought and memory are based.
"The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction." NIMH RSS. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-teen-brain-still-under-construction/index.shtml>.