Valeriia Zaozerska
“I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.”
- William Shakespeare
Being a teenager is tough. From 11 to 19 years old, humans go through huge developmental leaps, and hormone instability is just a small part of what's really happening to an adolescent's body. In this article, I’ll look at: how the youth brain changes; why teenagers take more risks than others, how and why their relationships with parents and peers change,; why young people don't want to go to bed early,; and why emotions become so intense at this age.
Not a long time ago, in the late 1990s, scientists believed that the main process of brain development occurs in the first years of a person's life. However, with the development of MRI technology, everything has changed. Now, experts are confident that the brain develops not only in early childhood, but also in adolescence, as well as after the age of 20 or even 30.
The prefrontal cortex, which isn’t yet sufficiently developed, plays a very important role here. According to cognitive neuroscientist, the prefrontal cortex is involved in decision making, planning, and inhibiting inappropriate behaviour (Blakemore, 2019). It also plays a role in social interaction, understanding other people and oneself. Using MRI, scientists have seen that the volume of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex peaks in adolescence, somewhere between the age of 10 and 14. Then, while the person is still a teenager, a decline sets in, and this isn’t bad, because it only means that unnecessary synapses, connections between neural cells in the brain, are being removed. Those synapses that aren’t used are removed, and the rest are strengthened. This stage is often called "use it or lose it". What this means is that teenagers would best spend their time on activities that benefit their brains. They can study languages, write poetry, play sports, play an instrument. That will strengthen their synaptic connections and make life easier for them in their adulthood.
Young people take risks much more often than children and adults, but why? One might think it’s because the brain is immature, but why, then, do children take fewer risks? After all, their brain is even less developed. Research shows that the neurotransmitter dopamine plays a key role here. It makes us feel good when we achieve our goals. The baseline level of dopamine in adolescents is lower than in children and adults. However, teenagers have higher spikes in its production.
One of the triggers for the release of dopamine is something new, and this is what youth really love. At this age, boredom quickly sets in if nothing changes, so teenagers tend to take risks without thinking through the potential negative consequences. Psychiatrist says that young adults have a hyper-rational way of thinking (Siegel, 2014). This pushes young men and women to bad habits, fast driving, and other dangerous things. In a new study, Harvard freshman showed that the more risk teenagers take, the easier it becomes for them to take risks (Rahman, 2019). They become accustomed to them, which transforms the teenagers' brains by changing their emotional levels and making them take more risks. The brain of adolescents can adequately process and perceive large amounts of information, but it cannot always make a balanced and reasonable decision in an emotionally charged situation, especially if their peers are nearby, as the biggest motivators for risky behaviour: are thrill seeking, group pressure, protest, ignorance, “hope for the best”, love and trust. The conclusion of this paragraph can be summed up with one phrase from the book "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" by neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky: "Both adults and teenagers experience the desire for risk, but adults are better able to control this desire and with the help of a well-developed frontal cortex.”
As children become young adults, their emotions become more intense. They often experience mood swings and are more easily angered or upset. It’s important for adults to understand that this is normal. Parents shouldn’t punish teenagers for being overly emotional, it won’t lead to anything good.
According to associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, puberty is the beginning of major changes in the limbic system (Johnson, 2017). It’s system of the brain that plays a decisive role in the formation of emotions. An experiment was conducted at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts in USA, where patients of different ages were shown photographs of faces expressing different emotions and ask to identify the expressed emotions. Adults coped well with this task, but among youth, only 50% were able to successfully recognize such an emotion as fear while the rest saw not fear but embarrassment or resentment. In addition, adolescents tend to see emotions in other people even when they don’t have them. The amygdala is activated in teenagers even when they see photos with neutral emotions on their faces, they see negative emotions in them. Young people tend to react quickly with the emotional part of the brain, without engaging the more rational part of the prefrontal cortex. They may simply misinterpret facial expressions and therefore the intentions behind them.
Sleep is especially important for teenagers because during sleep the pituitary gland produces growth hormone, which is necessary for development. Before sleep, we produce melatonin, which allows us to relax and go to sleep. One study found that while adults begin producing melatonin around 10 p.m., adolescents don't produce it until 1 a.m. The delay is likely due to the hormonal frenzy of puberty. This is why teenagers like to stay up at night so much. There is also one of the reasons why the idea of postponing the start of classes in schools and universities is actively promoted in developed countries. After all, chronic lack of sleep causes anxiety and irritability in young people, and their attentiveness also suffers as a result.
As people grow older, they begin to rely less on their parents and become closer to their peers, which is an absolutely natural phenomenon. After all, sooner or later we leave our parents' house and then rely more on friends and lovers. Parents need to understand that it’s very important for teenagers to have relationships, and when they’re denying their children the opportunity to go to a party, it really hurts and negatively affects the minors. As stated before, adolescents are more likely to take risks when they’re in the company of their peers, which is partly due to the fact that approval of their reputation by other teenagers has an extremely positive effect on the brain. Young people are especially addicted to likes on social media, and large-scale studies in several countries have confirmed that being rejected by an online community feels just like being an outcast in real life. For example, being excluded from an online game leads to activity in the same parts of the brain as when experiencing physical pain. As Eveline Crone writes in her book " The Adolescent Brain: Changes in learning, decision-making and social relations": “the teenage brain is a time of unique opportunities”. In adolescence, the brain begins to think abstract terms, the opinion of others about them becomes important, we begin to look at ourselves from the outside. Communication at this age allows us to develop and acquire vital skills. The teenage brain seems to be tuned to learning how to understand other people, their thoughts and emotions, and to recognize social hierarchy.
In conclusion, teenagers really have it tough. On the one hand, they crave independence, and on the other hand, they need the attention of their peers and the care of their parents. Their brains develop in leaps and bounds, and they often don’t understand what’s happening to them. They take risks in search of a dose of dopamine, and the more they take risks, the more they want them. They have a poor understanding of other people's emotions and poor control over their own. During this period, people are especially vulnerable to mental illness. They want to go to bed later and it’s vitally important for them to establish relationships with peers.
At the same time, adolescents have a huge potential for acquiring skills and knowledge. It’s important for parents to learn to understand and accept their children. It’s really difficult to be a teenager, which is why parents need to try to make their lives easier and support them, rather than limiting and punishing them. In addition, it’s also important for young people, who are now going through this difficult period to realize that their brain is still in the process of active development, and to remember that they’re at an age of fantastic opportunities in the field of education and creativity. Moreover, they shouldn’t blindly believe everything that people say, and try to look to the future and be guided more often by mind than by emotions.
(Blakemore, "Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain", 2019)
(Siegel, "Brainstorm: the power and purpose of the teenage brain", 2014)
(Rahman, "How risk-taking changes a teenager's brain", 2019)
(Johnson, "Adolescent development and risk of injury", 2017)
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