Kerri Nolan, PhDNov. 16, 2011

The Teen Brain:Is That Why They Do What They Do?

Family & Education

Series, 2011-12

Guiding Questions How does the brain work and change? Is the teen brain different from other

brains? Why do teenagers act the way they do? What is technology doing to their brains? How can we maximize the teen brain’s

potential?

How does the brain work and change?

Brain Pop

Learn about the Brain

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Brain Evolution

Hominid brains have evolved and grown from 400 g 3-4 million years, to their present size of 1400 g (1.4kg).

The bodies of Homo erectus (1.7 million years ago) were not substantially smaller than humans of the last century, yet their brains were nearly half the size.

http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/insidebrain/brainevolution.htm

Intelligence Is Related to Brain Size

Mammal Body weight Brain weight Brain %

Blue whale 60 000 kg 6kg 0.01% Lion 200 kg 200g 0.1% Rat 200g 3g 1.5% Human 70 kg 1.3 kg 1.9% http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/insidebrain/brainevolution.htm

Neuroplasticity DefinedBrain scanning techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow scientists to investigate healthy live brains. Two of the most important findings are that our brains are plastic meaning they not only create new neurons but also can change their structure throughout a lifetime and that frontal lobes are the most plastic area. http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/01/

11/it-is-not-only-cars-that-deserve-good-maintenance-brain-care-101/

At the beginning of life when the immature brain organizes itself.

In case of brain injury to compensate for lost functions or maximize remaining functions.

Throughout adulthood whenever something new is learned and memorized.

http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/02/26/brain-plasticity-how-learning-changes-your-brain/

Neuroplasticity Occurs

William Glasser, Psychologist

“We Learn . . .10% of what we read20% of what we hear30% of what we see50% of what we see and hear70% of what we discuss80% of what we experience95% of what we teach others.”http://thinkexist.com/quotation/we-learn-of-what-we-read-of-what-we-hear-of-what/397216.html

Use It or Lose It A brain growth spurt begins just before

puberty in which connections between cells are either strengthened or die away depending on use.

This leads to the "use it or lose it" principle.

The pruning of unused connections is most predominant in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain critical to information synthesis.

Cells that Fire Together, Wire Together

Parts of the brain continue to be wired until a person is about 25 years old.

Neural plasticity allows the brain to find new pathways in the event of brain injury.

Wiring the Brain“If a teen is doing music, sports or academics, those are the connections that will be hard wired. If they're lying on the couch or playing video games or MTV, those are the cells and connections that are going to survive."

http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/September2002/Article10/tabid/418/Default.aspx

Is the teen brain different from other brains?

Fact or Fiction?

The adolescent brain is fully developed.

Fiction.

The prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls planning, working memory, organization, and processing of information, does not finish maturing until about age 25.http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/September2002/Article10/tabid/418/Default.aspx

Frontal Lobes

Frontal lobes, the part of our brains right behind the forehead, controls executive functions which determine our ability to pay attention, plan for the future and direct behavior toward achieving goals. They are critical for adapting to new situations. We exercise them best by learning and mastering new skills.

This part of the brain is delicate: our frontal lobes wait until our mid to late 20s to fully mature. They are also the first part of our brain to start to decline, usually by middle age.

Brain under Construction

. . .I think that this part of the brain that is helping organization, planning and strategizing is not done being built yet ... [It's] not that the teens are stupid or incapable. It's sort of unfair to expect them to have adult levels of organizational skills or decision making before their brain is finished being built. . .

Jay Giedd

http://www.edinformatics.com/news/teenage_brains.htm

The Wiring of the Adolescent Brain

From a PBS Frontline series on the adolescent brain comes . . .

Why do teenagers act the way they do?

The Amusing Part . . .

The Scary Part . . .

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by suboptimal decisions and actions that are associated with an increased incidence of unintentional injuries, violence, substance abuse, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases.

The National Institutes of Health

Seems To Be a Popular Topic

We know teens prefer the company of those their own age more than ever . . .

. . . that they often do things their parents find incomprehensible . . .

. . . that they seem to be rebellious and engage in risky behavior. . .

But . . . A few researchers have begun viewing recent brain findings in a brighter light colored by evolutionary theory. The resulting account of the adolescent brain—call it the adaptive-adolescent story—casts the teen less as a rough draft than as an exquisitely sensitive, highly adaptable creature wired almost perfectly for the job of moving from the safety of home into the complicated world outside.Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Theory of Evolution

Darwin’s theory of evolution proposes that animals well suited to their environment survive - and pass on their genes.

Animals that are not well suited perish before they have offspring. Their mixture of genes die with them.

http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/insidebrain/brainevolution.htm

Adolescence and Adaptation

As neuroscientist B. J. Casey puts it, "We're so used to seeing adolescence as a problem. But the more we learn about what really makes this period unique, the more adolescence starts to seem like a highly functional, even adaptive period. It's exactly what you'd need to do the things you have to do then.“Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Adolescence and Natural SelectionThis view will likely sit better with teens. More important, it sits better with biology's most fundamental principle, that of natural selection. Selection is hell on dysfunctional traits. If adolescence is essentially a collection of them—angst, idiocy, and haste; impulsiveness, selfishness, and reckless bumbling—then how did those traits survive selection? They couldn't—not if they were the period's most fundamental or consequential features.Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Physiological Aspects of the Brain

Adolescents are highly sensitive to dopamine, a neurotransmitter (or chemical messenger in the brain) that “appears to prime and fire reward circuits and aids in learning patterns and making decisions.” Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Oxytocin is a hormone produced in nerve cells that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It’s best know for its role in reproduction. The teen brain is attuned to oxytocin which makes social connections more rewarding.

Risk-taking

We court risk more avidly as teens than at any other time . . . The period from roughly 15 to 25 brings peaks in all sorts of risky ventures and ugly outcomes. This age group dies of accidents of almost every sort (other than work accidents) at high rates. Most long-term drug or alcohol abuse starts during adolescence, and even people who later drink responsibly often drink too much as teens . . . In the U.S., one in three teen deaths is from car crashes, many involving alcohol. Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Thrill Seeking

Impulsivity generally drops throughout life, starting at about age 10, but this love of the thrill peaks at around age 15. And although sensation seeking can lead to dangerous behaviors, it can also generate positive ones: The urge to meet more people, for instance, can create a wider circle of friends, which generally makes us healthier, happier, safer, and more successful.Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Sensation Seeking

We all like new and exciting things, but we never value them more highly than we do during adolescence. Here we hit a high in what behavioral scientists call sensation seeking: the hunt for the neural buzz, the jolt of the unusual or unexpected.Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Risks and Rewards

As developmental psychologist Laurence Steinberg points out, even 14- to 17-year-olds—the biggest risk takers—use the same basic cognitive strategies that adults do, and they usually reason their way through problems just as well as adults . . . Teens take more risks not because they don't understand the dangers but because they weigh risk versus reward differently: In situations where risk can get them something they want, they value the reward more heavily than adults do.Dobbs, David. Beautiful Brains. National Geographic, Oct. 2011.

Immediate vs. Long Term Rewards

The combination of heightened responsiveness to rewards and immaturity in behavioral control areas may bias adolescents to seek immediate rather than long-term gains, perhaps explaining their increase in risky decision making and emotional reactivity.

The National Institutes of Health

What is technology doing to their brains?

One Concern

"Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically. As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills." - Gary Small, UCLA neuroscientist

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090224-internet-brain.html

Another Concern

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centered. Repeated exposure could effectively 'rewire' the brain.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html

Three-quarters (74%) of all 7-12 graders in the United States say they have a profile on a social networking site.

http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm

And On and On

"My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.“Susan Greenfield, Oxford University neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institutionhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html

The Biggest Controversy Is Multitasking

Homework and Technology

Multitaskers don't just lose the minutes they spend on sites such as Facebook; they also lose time getting reoriented with each interruption.

That means the homework itself can take between 25 and 400 percent longer depending on the complexity and similarity of the tasks.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/11/gentech/main1699513_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

PBS Video

Miles O'Brien: This is Your Teen's Brain on Technology and Multitasking | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Digital Nation

PBS Frontline -- Digital Nation Video

Chapter 1:Distracted by EverythingChapter 2:What’s it Doing to their Brains?

The Positives . . . Kids need to learn new digital skills to

survive and thrive in our fast-changing society.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota asked teens what they learn from social networking sites. They listed technology skills, creativity, being open to new or diverse views, and communication skills.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090224-internet-brain.html

Benefits of Educational Technology

"Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout.

They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology.”- Christine Greenhow, researcher at University of Minnesota

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090224-internet-brain.html

More Positives

Children who use the Internet show gains in cognitive abilities such as memory, spatial and logical problem solving, critical thinking, concentration, abstraction and comprehension.

Through the use of the Internet, children’s language and literacy development is often promoted, allowing for greater gains in verbal and nonverbal skills.http://www.verdick.org/child-development-and-the-internet/child-dev-pos

According to the 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study . . . Only about three in ten young people say they

have rules about how much time they can spend watching TV (28%) or playing video games (30%), and 36% say the same about using the computer.

But when parents do set limits, children spend less time with media: those with any media rules consume nearly 3 hours less media per day (2:52) than those with no rules.

http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm

How can we maximize the teen brain’s potential?

Maximizing the Brain

Maximizing the brain’s potential simply means to improve the brain’s ability to process and retain knowledge and skills.

Some brains are better at doing this than others are.

Both genetic makeup and environment affect the brain’s potential for learning.

Negative Environmental Factors

Drug or alcohol abuse Physical or emotional

abuse Live in or near toxic

sites Neglect Separation from

parents Traumatic brain injury Poor diet

Jensen, Eric. Enriching the Brain: How to Maximize every Learner’s Potential. San Francisco: JohnWiley & Sons, 2006.

Positive Environmental Factors

Learning a new language

Participation in sports Learning to learn Skill building Entering a new

environment Phonemic awareness

training Restoration of a sense

Caring for the Teen Brain

Developing certain habits as teens will help their brains be effective and healthy, and continue helping later in life when they become adults.

http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/08/22/10-habits-of-highly-effective-brains/

Learn about the BrainLearn what is the It in Use It or Lose It. A basic understanding will serve teens well to appreciate their brain’s beauty as a living and constantly developing dense forest with billions of neurons and synapses.

Eat Properly

Take care of nutrition. The brain only weighs 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake. Teens don’t need nutritional supplements; just make sure they don’t stuff themselves with too much of the “bad stuff”.

Exercise

Remember that the brain is part of the body. Things that exercise the body can also help sharpen the brain: physical exercise enhances the formation and development of nerve cells.

Get Enough Sleep

Teen-agers are notorious for going to bed late and then struggling to get up in the morning. Sufficient sleep (8 or 9 hours) is imperative for the brain to process all it has done while the teen has been awake.

Zzzzzz's

Try to Reduce StressStress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or by a person’s own thoughts, actually kill neurons and prevent the creation of new ones.

Participate in Healthy Activities

Explore, travel. Adapting to new locations forces people to pay attention to the environment.

Be Sociable

Develop and maintain stimulating friendships. We are “social animals”, and need social interaction.

Getting Advice

Do Your Teens Seem Like Aliens? FRONTLINE | PBS

Talking With Your Teen | FRONTLINE | PBS