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Inside your teenager’s scary brain
adolescence. For parents, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
   frequently found herself baffled by her two teenage sons.
   The research into the medical mysteries of the teenage brain surprised
   through the teen years and even into the late 20s and 30s. In fact,
   Jensen argues in her new book, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s
   Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults, the teenage
   Emerging brain development science is changing the way we view teen
   behaviour: why teens can seem so moody and disorganized, why they
   illnesses begin to emerge in adolescence.
   New discoveries are also revealing that teen brains are far more
   teenagers—with more freedom or more rules?
   fundamental shift, one that is poised to make adolescence, rather than
   Teenage Brain, along with Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New
   Science of Adolescence by Temple University psychology professor
   Walsh’s influential 2004 book on teen brains, Why Do They Act That Way?
   A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen.
   acknowledgement that teenagers are uniquely susceptible to great risks.
   Behind the seemingly invincible teenage boy with the booming voice and
   typify teenage years, such as experimenting with cigarettes and
   marijuana and alcohol, can lower a teen’s IQ or increase susceptibility
   teen brain that can raise the risk of mood disorders or learning
   “The derailment of an adolescent may or may not be reversible and we
   government funding for brain research be set aside to study teen brain
   the teen years are to the person we ultimately become. “This is an
   Along with new wiring, the brains of teens and young adults are also
   incomplete, teens often take longer to access their prefrontal
   At the same time that teens’ brains are laying down connections and
   cortex explains why teens are often prone to emotional outbursts, says
   Hormones also appear to have a different effect in teens than they do
   the opposite effect in teens, increasing stress. It’s one reason why
   teens are prone to anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s
   Along with new wiring, insulation and hormones, teen brains are highly
   brain that govern pleasure and helps explain why teens seem to take so
   teens are as accurate as adults when it comes to understanding if an
   Central to our understanding of how teens learn is “pruning”—a period
   adolescence, has been linked to higher intelligence, Jensen says.
   It’s for this reason that Jay Giedd, an expert in child and adolescent
   describes the teen years as a special period of “use it or lose it” for
   adolescence form new connections, while those that go unused wither
   happens during the teen years—adolescence now appears to be a period
   the teen years.
   teens aged 12 to 16 and then retested them four years later. They found
   some teens’ IQs rose as much as 18 points, the difference between being
   abilities in early adolescence, suggesting that changes weren’t simply
   A study published last year of Swedish teenagers linked a drop in IQ
   during adolescence. Researchers concluded it was likely caused by
   genetic factors that affect adolescent brain development, rather than
   schizophrenia is linked to “overpruning” in the teenage brain.)
   Just as teens’ brain development appears to make them highly sensitive
   vulnerable teens are to learning the wrong things.
   but since teens are so primed for learning and have less of an ability
   ways that can make teens more vulnerable to mental illness or even
   prefrontal cortexes in teens and appears to damage parts of the brain
   Other studies have linked smoking in teens to alcohol abuse, which
   turns out smoking pot may be far worse for the teen brain than
   adolescence to smaller brain volume and more damage to white matter.
   for teens with ADHD, who researchers have found are far more likely to
   abuse both cigarettes and marijuana than other teenagers.
   For teens who get a thrill from binge drinking and getting high, the
   Alcohol, for instance, can affect the developing teen brain in myriad
   learning. American researchers have also found that teens who started
   as their teenagers drink at home under supervision, they’ll be safe
   teens drink at home, the more they will drink elsewhere and the higher
   the teen brain. Chronic stress is also proving to permanently alter
   our teenagers, what’s a parent to do with this new science of the
   teenage brain? More rules—an approach exemplified by Yale professor Amy
   much, do parents risk raising teens whose brains never learn how to
   In Teenage Brain, Jensen puts herself squarely in the camp of the
   teen’s homework, help them make lists to prioritize their assignments,
   and to not be afraid to “sound like a broken record” in reminding teens
   She encourages parents to “be your teen’s frontal lobes” and to “try to
   think for your teenage sons and daughters until their own brains are
   Jensen argues that it’s a parent’s job to protect their teens from
   TEENAGE BRAIN
   Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen, believes that
   adolescent rebellion has little to do with brain development and lots
   to do with how society treats teenagers. He argues scientists have it
   backward: teens don’t act out because they have immature brains
   Epstein has six children, including two teens and two adult children.
   He began changing his views on teen behaviour when he caught his
   with his teenagers. His 16-year-old son now comes home from school and
   adolescents—such as why teens can drive as early as 15, join the
   trend toward more rules for teen drivers, such as curfews, or bans on
   cellphone use by teen drivers, but not adults, are heading in the right
   Other research is challenging the notion that teens have a less mature
   show that when teens are alone they perform as well as adults on tasks
   involving a tradeoff of risk and reward. But when other teens are in
   the room watching, adolescents tend to make far riskier decisions.
   teen risk-taking is likely social.
   Psychobiology at Cornell University, found that teens could be less
   longer teens took to make a decision, suggesting that parents trying to
   control a hot-headed teen might want to offer rewards for good
   teenagers—and who they become later in life, in many cases—if we took a
     * adolescence
     * teenagers