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| Teen's Brains Really Do Work Differently
December 4, 2009 -- Laurence Steinberg, a developmental psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia, recently published a ground-breaking study of teenage brains and behavior. In the past five years, scientists have made huge progress in understanding that adolescent brains are very different than the adult version. The brain regions that control impulsivity and executive function are not fully developed in teens. Steinberg's work has played a key role in expanding our understanding that physiology drives some of teenagers' illogical or risky decisions.
For instance, in 2005 Steinberg showed that teens taking a simulated driving test were twice as likely to drive dangerously if they had two friends with them as they would if driving alone. Brain scans later showed that reward centers in the teenagers' brains lit up more if they were told that friends were watching them, a pattern not seen in adults.
He's now studying how adolescents and adults respond to peer influence when they make decisions and how their brain activity differs when they do. And he's starting to look into whether the teenage behaviors that so baffle American parents are universal or if teenagers in other countries deploy their uniquely adolescent brains in different ways. |
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