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Tero Toivanen

The five ages of the brain: Adolescence - life - 04 April 2009 - New Scientist - 0 views

www.newscientist.com/...-of-the-brain-adolescence.html

Adolescence brain scanning grey-matter neural connections prefrontal cortex white matter

shared by Tero Toivanen on 21 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Jay Giedd at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and his colleagues have followed the progress of nearly 400 children, scanning many of them every two years as they grew up. They found that adolescence brings waves of grey-matter pruning, with teens losing about 1 per cent of their grey matter every year until their early 20s (Nature Neuroscience, vol 2, p 861).
  • This cerebral pruning trims unused neural connections that were overproduced in the childhood growth spurt, starting with the more basic sensory and motor areas.
  • Among the last to mature is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at the very front of the frontal lobe. This area is involved in control of impulses, judgement and decision-making, which might explain some of the less-than-stellar decisions made by your average teen. This area also acts to control and process emotional information sent from the amygdala - the fight or flight centre of gut reactions - which may account for the mercurial tempers of adolescents.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • As grey matter is lost, though, the brain gains white matter
  • These changes have both benefits and pitfalls. At this stage of life the brain is still childishly flexible, so we are still sponges for learning. On the other hand, the lack of impulse control may lead to risky behaviours such as drug and alcohol abuse, smoking and unprotected sex.
  • Substance abuse is particularly concerning, as brain imaging studies suggest that the motivation and reward circuitry in teen brains makes them almost hard-wired for addiction.
  • since drug abuse and stressful events - even a broken heart - have been linked to mood disorders later in life, this is the time when both are best avoided.
  • Making the most of this time is a matter of throwing all that teen energy into learning and new experiences - whether that means hitting the books, learning to express themselves through music or art, or exploring life by travelling the world.
  • Tero Toivanen on 21 Jun 09
     
    Jay Giedd at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and his colleagues have followed the progress of nearly 400 children, scanning many of them every two years as they grew up. They found that adolescence brings waves of grey-matter pruning, with teens losing about 1 per cent of their grey matter every year until their early 20s (Nature Neuroscience, vol 2, p 861).
Tero Toivanen

Understanding alcohol's damaging effects on the brain - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-06-alcohol-effects-brain.html

understanding alcohol effects brain damaging research alcoholism pharmacological neurons

shared by Tero Toivanen on 18 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 18 Jun 11
     
    "In particular, evidence is emerging that supports characteristic, discrete alcohol binding sites on protein targets."
Tero Toivanen

How To Keep Mentally Fit As You Age | Boost Your IQ - 0 views

boostyouriq.co.cc/mentally-fit-age

brain aging memory intelligence physical exercise fruits vegetables fish alcohol educate learn sleep

shared by Tero Toivanen on 23 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Tero Toivanen on 23 Jun 09
     
    When you are young and mentally fit, you will perhaps never be able to comprehend that your memory, intelligence and overall mental fitness can actually decline as you age. However, as we grow older, our mental sharpness will gradually decline (and at an increasing rate) if we fail to keep on top of things.
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