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Javier E

The Economist explains: How teenage brains are different | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...economist-explains-15

brain science adolescence refrontal cortex psychology

shared by Javier E on 25 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • is there such a thing as a “teenage brain”, and does it help to explain the high rates of recklessness among teenagers?
  • the brain blooms with neural connections until a child reaches the age of 11 or 12, and then it selectively prunes away the underused ones, or “grey matter”, throughout adolescence. As the brain grows more streamlined, it becomes better at processing information.
  • The remaining connections are then made more efficient by a process called myelination, which essentially insulates neuronal axons with a sheath of fatty cell material, or “white matter”. The process of replacing grey matter with white matter does not reach the prefrontal cortex until people are in their early 20s. Studies show a relationship between increased myelination and an improved ability to make decisions and control impulses.
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  • But although it is always tempting to use hard science to explain otherwise perplexing behaviour, neuroimaging research is still in its infancy
  • There is much about the brain that no one understands yet, and there is rarely a clear relationship between a particular brain region and a discrete function, so any links between brain structure and behaviour remain speculative. Indeed, while researchers often take care to show that the relationship between how a brain looks and how someone behaves is correlative, often this link is misinterpreted as a sign of causation
  • Scientists also point out that brain science cannot be understood in a vacuum. All behaviour is a function of many influences, including parenting, socioeconomic status, nutrition, culture and so on
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