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The Amazing Teen Brain Summary

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There is hope for parents of teenagers that feel like their child is a lost cause. In a 2015 issue of Scientific American titled The Amazing Teen Brain, author Jay N. Giedd explains why the teenage brain is not “biology gone wrong”. With the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the brain of people of different ages can be studied to provide more accurate information. One of those findings is that the adolescent brain does not mature by getting larger, that it matures by having its structures more interconnected and by becoming more specialized. MRI scans show that greater volumes of white matter indicate the increase in connectivity among brain regions. White matter contains axons, which are extensions of neurons. A covering called myelin surrounds many axons, and myelin gives white matter its white color. The formation of myelin occurs from childhood through adulthood and it greatly speeds up nerve impulses among neurons. Myelination makes a difference so great that unmyelinated axons send signals 100 times slower than myelinated ones. Another crucial function of myelin is that it quickens the way brain processes information. It does this by helping axons recover quickly after they fire a signal so they are ready to …show more content…

Puberty starting at an earlier age widens this gap, which is why teen years are not synonymous with each other anymore. The environment can influence the pace of biological maturation of white and gray matter, but the timing of the maturation is under biological control. Sometimes extensive changes in white matter, gray matter, and networking, increase the chance for mental illness such as schizophrenia to arise. 50 percent of the mental illness people experience develops by age 14, and 75 percent start by age

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753 Words | 4 Pages

Inventing Ourselves; The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 1 chose this book because I have an interest in the brain and neurology, something I've been considering as a future career. The brain is something that is so complex and the teenage brain is even more. The adolescent brain goes through so many changes that I and my classmate have all felt not so long ago and the fact that I had the chance to read about it in a book that is very easy to understand and an author who doesn't want to demonize teens as they go through this developmental process. As previously stated this book talks about the development of the adolescent brain. Some major talking points Blakemore goes over are, the brain structure, societal pressure on teens and how it affects their development, why adolescents make the choices they do, and

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Thompson provides how he had his own research group for collecting data on teenage brain development. Although Thompson may have experience in this subject field we do not know if he is a completely credible source and if he is trustworthy. “Our colleagues at the National Institutes of Health have developed technology to map the patterns of the brain in individual children and teenagers.” Again, Thompson provides his colleagues as credible sources as a use of ethos in his article. However, they can be students in learning and have no true credibility

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The excerpt from Teen Brain “Still under construction” by NIMH, the author believes that the teen brain is still changing, hormonally, emotionally, and intellectually, which effects a teenagers behavior. To begin, hormonal changes effect a teenagers behavior. Hormones cause stress which creates abnormal behavior for teenagers. “As with reproductive hormones, stress hormones can have complex effects on the brain, and as a result, behavior.” This shows that hormones cause sufficient stress which results in your behavior.

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She says, “When we are young we have way more connections between our neurons than we need. These extra connections are there, ready to be used to build networks for the things we experience.” She tells us that we go through major pruning processes as we learn new skills that we need to re-inforce and as we don’t use connections that aren’t vital to our lives. Both Connor-Smith and Zimmerman tell us how the brain affects different age groups, but because they each explain a different

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109 Words | 1 Pages

While there are some aspects of Gopnik’s essay on the problems with today’s adolescent mind that I can agree upon, there’s a few blatant issues with her writings. Firstly, Gopnik’s essay title immediately has a negative connotation surrounding it by suggesting there is something “wrong” with the teenage mind. Gopnik presents many issues plaguing youths, such as poor diet, and lack of exercise; in addition she briefly blames the industrial revolution and the information revolution as leading factors in why children are failing to achieve adulthood sooner in life and why they’re hitting puberty so quickly, however, she seems to focus primarily on teens and early adult’s brain chemistry.

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Hanson found that poor children had less gray matter within the hippocampus (5). Hanson concluded that “higher levels of chronic stress” could result in small hippocampal volumes into adulthood and other “early environment” factors, such as

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”(healthychildren.org) It is true that the adolescent brain is still developing and not fully mature, but they should

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The author points out that “Brain imaging studies reveal that the regions of the adolescent brain responsible for controlling thoughts, actions and emotions are not fully developed.” Brain imaging studies have repeatedly shown that the brains in younger people are still developing well over the age of 18. Garinger states that

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Brain Rules Life challenges are faced by individuals everyday at schools, universities, homes and work environments. By understanding brain functions, it can help everyone in all aspects of daily lives. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant, uses brain sciences describe how brain processes and define 12 brain rules, the examples that have been introduced in his book that vividly explain brain science and help readers understand the principles. Rule 1 Survival According to Medina, Brain helps individuals to deal with complex relationships and survive in society.

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Kolbert emphasizes the youth’s brain is more distinct from adults. For example, “The leading cause of death among adolescents today is accidents; [also] known as the “accident hump” (P). Kolbert uses effective diction when she states teens are “accident hump” to do crazy things. Through

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Whether it is modern-day teens or teens from the 14th century, teen brains are developing and therefore they rely on their emotions rather

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In the article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains,” by Paul Thompson, he speaks about how adolescents lose brain tissue as they mature. Specifically gray matter, which according to Thompson, “...brain researchers believe supports all our thinking and emotions.” The matter is being purged at a rapid rate. It’s taking with it the cells that support risk-taking, impulses, and self-control. While this shouldn’t prove to be an excuse for adolescents to break the law, it should prove to be an explanation.

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They may become carriers of the genetic condition but can be triggered typically by environmental and experiential exposures. Older people are often vulnerable to the aforementioned factors. Why? Since they are also carriers of problematic genes, the external factors such as alcohol, nicotine, and drugs can be linked to the risks of developing the mental illness.

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According to webmd.com, there is no one reason or cause of a mental disorder but it is a mix of environmental, biological, and psychological reasons. An environmental factor can be something like if an adolescent is having problems going on in their family at home, it could be expectations of society, or even something like moving to a new home and going to a new school where they have to adjust to a new lifestyle. A biological factor could be that a mental disorder runs in the family, or something like being born with a brain defect. Examples of psychological factors of mental disorders could be things like a loss in the adolescent 's family, feelings of negligence in their life, or it could be something as simple as feeling like they’re not relating to others around them. These are just a few starting points that might lead to a mental disorder in the future of that

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776 Words | 4 Pages

During this time, teenage brains actually lose important matter in certain regions of the brain. A statistic referring to the teenage years, from a Sacramento Bee article titled “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” stated that, “Gray matter, which brain researchers believe supports all our thinking and emotions is purged at a rate of 1 percent to 2 percent a year during this period” (Thompson 89). Essentially, this is proof that teenager’s decision making isn’t under their full control and can cause them to act out. There are also some regions of the teenage brain that are more developed than others and this actually turns out to be a bad thing. In a New York Times article Richard Freidman explains that, “Adolescents have a brain that is wired with an enhanced capacity for fear and anxiety, but is relatively underdeveloped when it comes to calm reasoning” (1).

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