Beginning with the Teen Brain
Have you ever surprised yourself by doing something impulsive, wacky, or maybe even dangerous? Something you did without thinking, without even considering the consequences? If you haven’t yet, wait for it ... the surprise is coming. That’s partly because your brain is still growing up. It’s still developing the front section, called the prefrontal cortex, which controls reasoning and helps you slow down and think before you push the gas pedal to the floor.
Teenage brains are different from the brains of children or adults.
They’re remarkable in several ways and better at some things – like math, music, and languages – than adult brains. Still, parts of your teen brain are like a fancy iPad that has trouble connecting to wi-fi, with a camera that sometimes crashes and passwords that randomly disappear.
A dodgy wi-fi connection is similar to the developing prefrontal cortex. Yours is waiting around till you hit your mid-20s before it’s going to completely come online and help control impulses and emotions. Until that happens, the teen brain sometimes contributes to problems such as:
- Getting into fights. Ouch.
- Misinterpreting social cues or facial expressions. Awkward.
- Acting or speaking on impulse in a way that you’ll regret later. That never feels good.
- Some pretty risky business. Even a smart brain can make dumb decisions.
BTW, all of the above are problems for adults, too. But generally not as often.
Some brainy facts might be interesting. Compared to adults, toddlers have many more synapses (connections) that pass signals around the brain – about 1.5 times as many. As we grow up, some of these synapses get “pruned,” and that’s a good thing. The ones left eventually become more efficient, quicker to put the brakes on irrational behavior and better at reading social signals like facial expressions. Between ages 13 and 19, this pruning is still happening. Around age 24, it’s usually complete. The brain has matured. Of course, not everyone with a mature brain is mature, but maybe that’s another book....
When governments around the world decided that young people could get a driver’s license as early as 16, vote as early as 18, or sign legal contracts at 21, I don’t imagine they were thinking about synapses and brain maturation. I won’t tell them if you don’t....
But just when you thought you had to wait years for a complete brain, there’s good news. The brain region called the amygdala, where reactions such as pleasure, fear and aggression come from, is fully online. Because the amygdala is more developed than the pre-frontal cortex, you might respond to something you don’t like – maybe a curfew your parents impose – with shouting rather than calm logic.
So what difference does it make to know that your brain isn’t fully developed? Is this the perfect excuse for making bad decisions?
“I couldn’t help it. My brain made me do it.”
No, you can’t really get away with that. After all, you do have some prefrontal cortex development. Hopefully, you also have lots of good examples of how to handle decisions and turn down dodgy schemes.
Knowing that your brain is still searching for a strong wi-fi signal – that some important connections haven’t been made yet – can be useful. It takes some stress out of life. It helps you do a lot of things we have old sayings for: Put the brakes on. Think twice. Take a deep breath. Count to ten.