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prefrontal cortex’s ability to boss the brain increases with age.

reward system can outmuscle the master planner.

adolescent brain specifically evolved to respond to rewards so teens would leave behind the protection provided by their parents and start exploring their environment — a necessary step toward the independence they will need in adulthood.

So that’s why you have parents to act as your prefrontal cortex,” Frank jokes. Then, all too often, he says, “you reach adolescence and you don’t listen to your parents anymore.”

brain acts as the sculptor and chops away excess synapses. Scientists refer to this process as synaptic pruning.

If you have ever thought that the choices teenagers make are all about exploring and pushing limits, you are on to something

necessary phase in teen development

exploratory period.

Even laboratory mice experience a similar phase during their development.

Young mice that explore most tend to live longest

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The scanner relies on a powerful magnet and radio waves to create detailed images of the brains

Teens also can play games that require them to make choices,

observing and measuring which parts of the teens’ brains are most active

During the risk-taking and rewards-based tests, one region deep inside the brain shows more activity in adolescents than it does in children or adults, Crone says. This region, known as the ventral striatum, is often referred to as the “reward center”

Adolescents are particularly sensitive and responsive to influence by friends, desires and emotions, researchers say. It’s one of the hallmarks of this stage in life.

eel good” response helps explain why they often give in to impulsive desires.

to be shouting louder” between the ages of 13 and 17 than at any other time during human development.

prefrontal cortex, it’s the brain’s master planner.

brain is locked in a tug-of-war between the logical pull of the prefrontal cortex and the impulsive pull of the ventral striatum.

prefrontal cortex seems to lag in developing. It turns out this delay serves an important evolutionary function,

So it’s important that the master planner not be too rigid or restrictive during adolescence. Instead, it stays open to learning.

One of the processes involves axons, or fibers that connect nerve cells. From infancy, these fibers allow one nerve cell to talk to another. Throughout the teen years, fatty tissue starts to insulate the axons from interfering signals — it is a bit like the plastic that coats electrical cables.

In axons, the insulating tissue allows information to zip back and forth between brain cells much more quickly. It also helps build networks that link the prefrontal cortex with other brain regions, allowing them to work together more efficiently.

The second key process involves synapses. A synapse is like a dock between nerve cells. Nerve cells communicate by transmitting chemical and electrical signals. Those signals move through the synapses.

brain starts discarding many of these connections

So the brain strengthens the synapses it really needs and eliminates those that either slow things down or aren’t useful.