The Teen Brain
Teen brains are still developing. Parents observe the signs of a brain not-yet-ready for adulthood and often misinterpret the behavior as willful acts of defiance and insubordination. It might be helpful for parents to view their developing teens as they did their toddlers, growing but not full grown yet.
The major changes in the brain mirror those that happened at earlier stages of development.
The greatest density of brain cells begins in the womb with an overproduction of brain neurons between the third and sixth months of gestation. Just before birth, there is a pruning process where many of the unnecessary cells are eliminated.
This process reoccurs again between 5 and 6 year of age and at puberty. In adolescence, around 11-20 years of age, the brain goes through a period of rapid addition of networks and connections followed by a period of pruning or optimization based on what is used or not. This process is not completed until somewhere around 25 years of age when the final remodeling of the prefrontal cortex is thought to occur.
The changes in behavior that are observed in adolescence are due, in part, to how the brain has already developed. The emotional centers, located deep within the brain, mature before the thinking and reasoning centers in the prefrontal cortex. During adolescence, the emotional centers may be more active in managing some kinds of thought which give different results than if that information were managed by the more logical thinking centers in the prefrontal cortex.
In this period, teens are thinking with their emotional center since the prefrontal cortex is busy with the final stages of development. Some research indicates that teens do not read facial expressions with the same part of the brain that adults do, setting the stage for communication problems. It is the parents’ prefrontal cortex of better judgment that must guide teens in highly emotional and impulsive states.
Recent research shows that the proliferation of neuronal growth that occurs in puberty is mainly in the thinking centers of the brain in the prefrontal cortex.
This is the same brain region that is responsible for the higher order mental functions like thinking and planning. Parents observe changes in behavior that are directly related to changes in the activity in this area of the brain. The maturity of the sex hormones compound the picture by affecting, not only brain connections, but also behaviors and sexual attraction. The physical changes from childhood to adulthood are obvious and profound. There is an increase in height, weight, secondary sexual characteristics and change in sleeping patterns.
Parents can observe changes due to adolescent brain development as follows:
- More focus on self and outcomes
- Increased interest in what happens in the world
- Increased intellectual interests
- Improved ability to find and solve problems and to reason and use abstract ideas
- Increased interest in establishing a sexual identity and to establish intimate relationships
- Heightened awareness of sexual attraction
- Experimentation with sexual feelings and relationships
- Establishment of a sexual identity and becoming comfortable with one’s sexual identity
- Gender identity issues emerge
- Teens have a heightened focus on self and often feel that others are tuned into and watching them or are concerned with their thoughts, actions, and behaviors
- Peer influence become more important than parent’s influence, on the surface
- Teens may be reluctant and resistant to follow adults or authority figure’s instructions
- They are on a quest for personal uniqueness and need to establish an identity different than their parents
- Teens need to feel valued for contributions to everyday occurrences and not treated as though they are not capable of making a valuable contribution
- Teens exhibit an increase risk taking and experimentation
- There are rapid changes in height and weight
- Sexual development with the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics (changes in genitalia, sweat glands, and body hair and fat distribution)
- Teens are often awkward and clumsy related to rapid growth of skeleton and muscles
- Further Brain development with proliferation of connections and pruning of unused networks
- There is an alteration in sleep, eating patterns, and energy levels
Parenting Tips:
In recognition of the changes going on the adolescent brain, parents can decrease some of the conflict and communication issues by parenting their teen with their development in mind.