Adolescent Brain Development
The brain continues to change throughout the teenage years becoming fully developed by age 25.
Parts of the Brain under construction during the teenage years:
Temporal Lobes
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Handle auditory information.
Deep down within the temporal lobes is a structure called the hippocampus, and it is responsible for memory. The
part of the brain between, seven and 11, that works really efficiently and is growing/ developing a lot
Handles memory and shows tremendous growth.
Cerebellum
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muscle coordination, coordination of thinking and processing, social navigation
Cerebral Cortex
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Thickening of grey matter
Neural Growth - Synaptic Growth Spurt
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Between seven and 11, the brain undergoes a huge spurt of growth of
neurons and synapses or connections just like they were doing around
18 months to two.
Most of this growth is in the temporal lobes and in the parietal lobes.
Synaptic Pruning
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Sculpting of the teen brain
Selective pruning which takes place mostly in the frontal lobes.
The adolescent loses approximately 3 percent of the gray matter
(neuron bodies responsible for information processing)
“use-it-or-lose-it” - Neural connections, or synapses, that get exercised are retained, while those that don’t are
lost.
How you spend your time is crutial. You are hard-wiring your brain in adolescence for the rest of your life.
Do you want to hard-wire it for sports and playing music and doing mathematics–or for lying on the couch in
front of the television?"
Starting around 11 the brain is pruning away, sculpting away excess material, excess connections, to make a
more refined, more efficient, more adult brain.
Myelination
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Myelination: wrapping white matter (myelin) around other synapses/ connections to stabilize
and strengthen them.
The last part of the brain to myelinate is the frontal lobes.
Not complete in the frontal lobes of the brain until around 18 to 20 or later.
Myelination on a neuron allows it to operate more efficiently.
Myelination happens in the temporal and parietal lobes before it happens in the frontal lobes.
Teens are moving from concrete to abstract thinking.
Teens tend to become very idealistic & cause-oriented.
Girls myelinate 1-2 years earlier than boys and are perhaps ready for curriculum that boys may not be ready for
Blue = myelination
Red = pruning of grey matter
Prefrontal Lobes
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CEO of the brain, behind the forehead
The last area of the brain to develop
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The prefrontal lobes are responsible for:
Reasoning ability, problem solving, cognitive flexibility “can you change your mind
fluidly solving problems”
Planning behaviour, goal and priority setting, strategizing
Adolescents have a great deal of difficulty prioritizing. Planning and organization of
multiple tasks.
Adolescents are terrible at multitasking.
Impulse inhibition.
Teens experience a greater desire & need for thrill-seeking than any other age group. Teens tend to exhibit the
“it can’t happen to me” syndrome also known as the “invincible fable.”
Determining cause and effect relationships.
Determining right from wrong.
Teens tend to exhibit a “justice” orientation and a strong belief in individual rights.
They are quick to point out inconsistencies between adults’ words and their actions.
They begin to question rules and adult decisions
They have difficulty seeing shades of gray seeing little room for error.
Emotional control
Ability to make sound judgments
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Emotional Control
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The amygdala is responsible for processing incoming sensory information
Responsible for “fight or flight response”
When experiencing danger you fight back or run
The amygdala develops before the frontal lobes develop.
The role of the amygdala is to hold emotional memory.
Adolescents are not good at reading emotions.
Adolescents tend to label neutral or ambiguous facial expressions and tones as negative.
(Mistaking shock and surprise for fear)
Because teens use their amygdala instead of their cortex
Teens lack the ability to reflect especially in emotional situations
Teens demonstrate a heightened level of self-consciousness.
Teens tend to believe that everyone is as concerned with their thoughts and behaviors as they are. This leads
teens to believe that they have an “imaginary audience” of people who are always watching them.
Teens become more egocentric
Teens tend to believe in the “personal fable,” that no one else has ever experienced similar feelings and
emotions.
There are real differences in an adolescent brain and an adult brain when they are in an emotional situation.
Teens’ emotional experiences are more intense and may become overly dramatic in describing things that are
upsetting to them.
Teens engage in more risky behaviour
Drugs and Alcohol
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Teen brains can get addicted faster and stronger than adult brains
Drugs and alcohol cause more long term affects and damage
(Hippocampus development – affecting memory)
The Importance of Sleep
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Sleep is one of the best things you can do for your brain.
In the adolescent brain circadian rhythms are set much later; the sleep-wake cycle does not begin until
11:00pm or 12:00 midnight.
R EM sleep is most important for learning and making improvements in memory
How to make the best of your teenage brain
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If you are argumentative join in on debates
Engage in more hands-on experiences
Try on adult roles (part-time jobs, volunteering)
Exercise regularly to increase learning capacity
Explore a variety of different activities and experiences to capitalize on the plasticity of the brain
Get 9.5 hours of sleep each night
Try yoga or meditating
Eat breakfast every morning
Avoid the risks of drugs and alcohol
Reduce stress by learning coping skills
Have positive relationships with your parents, spend quality time with them
Seek support from mentors
Eventually you will:
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Broaden your thinking abilities: think abstractly and hypothetically; discern underlying principles of various
phenomena & apply them to new situations;
Think about the future, considering many possibilities & logical outcomes.
Have greater perspective-taking = more empathy & concern of others & new interest in societal issues.
See things as relative not absolute