How the
Adolescent Brain Challenges the Adult Brain
by Dr. Kathie F. Nunley
What makes the adolescent brain so challenging to
the adult brain? Anyone who has ever tried to parent, teach or mentor
the adolescent brain knows it can create some frustrating moments. A
lot of this frustration can be blamed on some of the biology unique to
the adolescent brain.
In any aged brain, the region responsible for
basic survival needs (eat, flight/fight, sex) are handled by a region
known as the hypothalamus. For obvious reason, the hypothalamus is
powerful, influential and ready to function right from birth.
Biologically speaking, if this area was not given top priority, the
animal may not survive for long.
One of the frustrations with adolescents is due to
the fact that hormones, environment, and learning, make this survival
region of the brain a "hot area" in adolescent brains.
In addition, the basic survival drives of the
hypothalamus don't always agree with the social structure, morals and
safety of society. For the more "civilized" human behaviors we need to
involve higher regions of the brain. Higher brain regions, in the
cortex, can over-ride the hypothalamus. Although these regions are not
given biological priority, they are the "logical" parts of the brain
and are responsible for deciding when basic hypothalamus drives may not
be in our best long-term interest.
A region called the prefrontal cortex plays the
role of arbitrator in making these critical decisions. It quickly sizes
up the situation and makes a determination which then drives our
behavior. It is the prefrontal cortex then that tells us when to act on
our anger, or curtail it, eat that second piece of dessert, or go
without, seek immediate gratification or hold off for the long term.
Unfortunately some people have a poorly developed
or poorly functioning prefrontal cortex. These people have a hard time
controlling impulsive behaviors. Head trauma, alcohol and drug abuse as
well as possible genetic predispositions can all lead to a
dysfunctional prefrontal cortex. Maturity also plays a big role as this
area takes about 20 years to fully develop. Hence, adolescents may have
problems quickly sizing up risks and making good ong-term decisions.
Other biological factors make adolescent brains
even more hypothalamus driven. Children learn what to do with anger by
watching other people in their sphere of influence and what they do
when they are angry. Peer-influence peaks during the teen-age years
which means that key role models for an adolescent are other
adolescents.
The hormone, oxytocin, found in the brain during
romantic relationships, tends to settle and stimulate the hypothalamus
during the beginning stages of the relationship. Anyone working with
adolescents knows that they are always in the midst of "new love",
which only further hampers logical decision making.
So adolescents appear to have at least 3 strikes
against them when it comes to using logic to weigh the risks in
dangerous or sometimes even everyday types of decisions. The more
primitive regions of their brains are strong and tend to drive
behaviors. The immature region responsible for the logic of long-term
benefits does not always override the impulsive, survival-oriented
hypothalamus. Add any additional trauma to the mix such as abusive
households or drug and alcohol use and the issue becomes even more
severe.
The biology of brain shows that adolescents still
need strong adult guidance and help with decision making throughout the
teen-age years . Time and good role models will fortunately allow the
brain to eventually mature to match the body.
Kathie F. Nunley is an
educational psychologist, author, researcher and speaker living in
southern New Hampshire. Developer of the Layered Curriculum method
of instruction, Dr. Nunley has authored several books and articles on
teaching in mixed-ability classrooms and other problems facing today's
teachers. Full references and additional teaching and parental tips are available at: http://Help4Teachers.com. Email her at: Kathie (at) brains.org
