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frontline: inside the teenage brain | PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/
At the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., Deborah Yurgelun-Todd and a group of researchers have studied how adolescents perceive emotion as compared to adults. The scientists looked at the brains of 18 children between the ages of 10 and 18 and compared them to 16 adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both groups were shown pictures of adult faces and asked to identify the emotion on the faces. Using fMRI, the researchers could trace what part of the brain responded as subjects were asked to identify the expression depicted in the picture.
The results surprised the researchers. The adults correctly identified the expression as fear. Yet the teens answered "shocked, surprised, angry." And the teens and adults used different parts of their brains to process what they were feeling. The teens mostly used the amygdala, a small almond shaped region that guides instinctual or "gut" reactions, while the adults relied on the frontal cortex, which governs reason and planning.
As the teens got older, the center of activity shifted more toward the frontal cortex and away from the cruder response of the amygdala.
Yurgelun-Todd, director of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroimaging at McLean Hospital believes the study goes partway to understanding why the teenage years seem so emotionally turbulent. The teens seemed not only to be misreading the feelings on the adult's face, but they reacted strongly from an area deep inside the brain(The Backside). The frontal cortex helped the adults distinguish fear from shock or surprise. Often called the executive or CEO of the brain, the frontal cortex gives adults the ability to distinguish a subtlety of expression: "Was this really fear or was it surprise or shock?" For the teens, this area wasn't fully operating.
Sarah Spinks is an independent director and producer. She was with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for 17 years, where her documentaries won many awards. Spinks' last FRONTLINE documentary, "Making Babies," reported on state-of-the-art infertility treatments.
When reading emotion, teens (left) rely more on the amygdala, while adults (right) rely more on the frontal cortex.
Reactions, rather than rational thought, come more from the amygdala, deep in the brain, than the frontal cortex, which led Yurgelun-Todd and other neuroscientists to suggest that an immature brain leads to impulsivity, or what researchers dub "risk-taking behavior." Although it was known from animal studies and brain-injured people that the frontal cortex matures more slowly than other brain strucures, it has only been with the advent of functional MRI that researchers have been able to study brain activity in normal children.
The brain scans used in these studies are a valuable tool for researchers. Never before have scientists been able to develop data banks of normal, healthy children. Outlining the changes in normal function and development will help researchers determine the causes of psychiatric disorders that afflict children and adolescents.
"If we were to compare the teenage brain to an automobile, it's as if the gas pedal is to the floor, and there are no brakes," says David Walsh, author of "Why Do They Act That Way: A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen."
Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, technology, we know that the teen brain develops from back to front. In other words, the part of the brain that helps teens reason, plan ahead and manage impulses -- the prefrontal cortex -- is one of the last areas to mature, at around age 25. Until then parents may have a hard time engaging their teens.
(Ps: so please spare a thought for those youngsters at work ....they are semi-logical and think using their BACk-SIDE of the brain.
Yes, teenagers do have brains, but theirs don't yet function like an adult's. With the advent of technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists have discovered that the adolescent brain is far from mature. "The teenage brain is a work in progress," says Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist at McMaster University in Ontario, and it's a work that develops in fits and starts.
Indeed, the brain inside a teenager's skull is in some ways closer to a child's brain than to an adult's. Still being forged are the connections between neurons that affect not only emotional skills but also physical and mental abilities. That means that it might be unreasonable to expect young teenagers to organize multiple tasks or grasp abstract ideas.
Something very different happens in teenagers, according to Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, a neuropsychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. In recent experiments, Yurgelun-Todd and graduate student Abigail Baird showed adults and teenagers photographs of people's faces contorted in fear. When the researcher asked her subjects to identify the emotion being expressed, all of the adults got it right. Many of the teens, however, were unable to correctly identify the expression
The teenage tendency to leap before looking is compounded by the fact that adolescence is a time for seeking out new experiences, including some that are dangerous. "I think all people do stupid things sometimes. It just seems like teenagers do it more often," says Rachael Fisher, an 18-year-old senior from Lakewood, Colo. That's an understatement. Driving without a seat belt, getting tattooed, smoking cigarettes, shoplifting--the list of foolish things kids do is longer than most parents really want to know
At the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., Deborah Yurgelun-Todd and a group of researchers have studied how adolescents perceive emotion as compared to adults. The scientists looked at the brains of 18 children between the ages of 10 and 18 and compared them to 16 adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both groups were shown pictures of adult faces and asked to identify the emotion on the faces. Using fMRI, the researchers could trace what part of the brain responded as subjects were asked to identify the expression depicted in the picture.
The results surprised the researchers. The adults correctly identified the expression as fear. Yet the teens answered "shocked, surprised, angry." And the teens and adults used different parts of their brains to process what they were feeling. The teens mostly used the amygdala, a small almond shaped region that guides instinctual or "gut" reactions, while the adults relied on the frontal cortex, which governs reason and planning.
As the teens got older, the center of activity shifted more toward the frontal cortex and away from the cruder response of the amygdala.
Yurgelun-Todd, director of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroimaging at McLean Hospital believes the study goes partway to understanding why the teenage years seem so emotionally turbulent. The teens seemed not only to be misreading the feelings on the adult's face, but they reacted strongly from an area deep inside the brain(The Backside). The frontal cortex helped the adults distinguish fear from shock or surprise. Often called the executive or CEO of the brain, the frontal cortex gives adults the ability to distinguish a subtlety of expression: "Was this really fear or was it surprise or shock?" For the teens, this area wasn't fully operating.
Sarah Spinks is an independent director and producer. She was with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for 17 years, where her documentaries won many awards. Spinks' last FRONTLINE documentary, "Making Babies," reported on state-of-the-art infertility treatments.
When reading emotion, teens (left) rely more on the amygdala, while adults (right) rely more on the frontal cortex.
Reactions, rather than rational thought, come more from the amygdala, deep in the brain, than the frontal cortex, which led Yurgelun-Todd and other neuroscientists to suggest that an immature brain leads to impulsivity, or what researchers dub "risk-taking behavior." Although it was known from animal studies and brain-injured people that the frontal cortex matures more slowly than other brain strucures, it has only been with the advent of functional MRI that researchers have been able to study brain activity in normal children.
The brain scans used in these studies are a valuable tool for researchers. Never before have scientists been able to develop data banks of normal, healthy children. Outlining the changes in normal function and development will help researchers determine the causes of psychiatric disorders that afflict children and adolescents.
"If we were to compare the teenage brain to an automobile, it's as if the gas pedal is to the floor, and there are no brakes," says David Walsh, author of "Why Do They Act That Way: A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen."
Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, technology, we know that the teen brain develops from back to front. In other words, the part of the brain that helps teens reason, plan ahead and manage impulses -- the prefrontal cortex -- is one of the last areas to mature, at around age 25. Until then parents may have a hard time engaging their teens.
(Ps: so please spare a thought for those youngsters at work ....they are semi-logical and think using their BACk-SIDE of the brain.
Yes, teenagers do have brains, but theirs don't yet function like an adult's. With the advent of technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists have discovered that the adolescent brain is far from mature. "The teenage brain is a work in progress," says Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist at McMaster University in Ontario, and it's a work that develops in fits and starts.
Indeed, the brain inside a teenager's skull is in some ways closer to a child's brain than to an adult's. Still being forged are the connections between neurons that affect not only emotional skills but also physical and mental abilities. That means that it might be unreasonable to expect young teenagers to organize multiple tasks or grasp abstract ideas.
Something very different happens in teenagers, according to Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, a neuropsychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. In recent experiments, Yurgelun-Todd and graduate student Abigail Baird showed adults and teenagers photographs of people's faces contorted in fear. When the researcher asked her subjects to identify the emotion being expressed, all of the adults got it right. Many of the teens, however, were unable to correctly identify the expression
The teenage tendency to leap before looking is compounded by the fact that adolescence is a time for seeking out new experiences, including some that are dangerous. "I think all people do stupid things sometimes. It just seems like teenagers do it more often," says Rachael Fisher, an 18-year-old senior from Lakewood, Colo. That's an understatement. Driving without a seat belt, getting tattooed, smoking cigarettes, shoplifting--the list of foolish things kids do is longer than most parents really want to know
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