it's not easy being a teenager there's
the angst the emotions the raging
hormones and although hormones do play a
big role in puberty the brain is going
through a lot of changes -
neuroscientists are learning at some of
the most puzzling teenage behavior may
actually have some real benefits legally
you're considered an adult when you turn
18 but from the neuroscience perspective
your brain is really still developing
and the current literature suggests that
it's about around age 25 or so is when
the brain finishes the period of
adolescence this is doctor Adriana
Galvan and she runs the developmental
neuroscience lab at UCLA the brain
develops from the back to the front so
the prefrontal cortex is the last region
to fully develop the prefrontal cortex
is the part of the brain you need to
make good decisions to think about the
future think about consequences you can
kind of think of it like this Bach of
the brain logical calm and collected and
then deeper in the brain there are these
emotional systems like the limbic system
that are more interested in immediate
gratification they're sort of like
Captain Kirk a risk-taker and a bit
emotional during the teenage years the
limbic system develops really quickly
and the prefrontal cortex is trying to
catch up eventually as individuals
become adults the prefrontal cortex will
increasingly have more influence over
behavior than the impulsive part of the
brain so without a fully developed
prefrontal cortex you can kind of see
why teens might be more impulsive for
just worried less about future
consequences another brain region that's
really active during adolescence is this
thing called the striatum and it's a key
part of the brain's reward system let's
say you find 20 bucks on the street or
someone gives you a cookie the striatum
goes off and it releases dopamine into
the brain
Adrianna's lab discovered that the
teenage brain is super sensitive to
different rewards like sugar and money
way way more than in the brains of
adults and children and all of this
activity in the brain's reward center it
may actually serve a purpose
we asked teenagers to come to the lab
and we scan their brains while they
performed a learning task they were
shown a picture of a butterfly and two
flowers and they were asked to guess
which flower the butterfly would land on
after each guest they were given
feedback when the teens got it right
their striatum would get really really
active they would learn over time that
the butterfly preferred one flower over
the other and everybody learned this
path but what we found is that the
adolescents learned it more quickly than
adults and with greater accuracy so
having this reward center that's hyper
responsive to feedback actually helps
teenagers learn from their environment
but this same region of the brain is
also connected to risk taking data from
Adriana's lab suggests that teens with a
more reactive striatum are more likely
to engage in risky behavior and to enjoy
it rather than ask how you keep your
teenager from taking risks because we
know the brain is really oriented
towards risk during this time it's
better to ask how do I provide
opportunities for healthy risk like
trying out for the school play even if
you've never acted before or asking
someone out on a date
those are real risks to a teenager but
they're not the kind of risks that
parents typically worry about it makes
sense from an evolutionary perspective
that there's a time in life when P
nature's want to become more independent
pick out new opportunities in the animal
world this would translate into looking
for new food resources or foraging
behavior and in teenagers that often
manifest as risk-taking behavior and
simply moving away from a family unit
teenagers are gonna make mistakes but
they've got this brain that's
encouraging them to learn and explore
and push boundaries so adolescence is a
really special time and I think we don't
appreciate enough their energy and their
ability to lead and to motivate and how
excitable they find life in a way that
we may be maybe we don't later in life
our brains keep changing throughout our
lives and researchers at UC Berkeley are
learning that if you give people a
little bit of power it can have a big
effect on the brain
learn more by watching our video here
and be sure to subscribe for more figure
one
you