What Happens to the Frontal Cortex Just Before Puberty
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The teen brain is under construction. Even when concrete growth appears consummate, teen brain evolution isn't finished. In fact, the adolescent brain doesn't fully mature until a immature person reaches their mid-twenties. Therefore, brain-mapping technologies reveal that the average teenager'south brain looks slightly dissimilar from the average adult's encephalon.
What You Demand to Know Nigh Teen Encephalon Evolution
Since teenage brains aren't fully developed, some areas aren't completely online. Near important, these areas are in the prefrontal cortex, which controls reasoning and teen emotion and cocky-regulation. As a issue, teens tin be more impulsive and moody. And because brain development and controlling are closely related, adolescents aren't every bit good at planning ahead and making conscientious decisions.
To understand farther, let'south look at how the teen brain develops and the different areas of the encephalon. In addition, we'll examine teen brain vs. adult brain functioning.
The Basic Architecture of the Brain
The brain has three main parts:
- Cerebrum, made upwardly of an outer layer (cerebral cortex, referred to as "greyness affair") and inner layer (cerebral medulla, referred to every bit "white matter"). In general, the left hemisphere performs mathematical, analytical, and verbal functions. Hence, the right hemisphere processes visual, spatial, and musical information.
- Cerebellum, a small structure at the rear of the encephalon that will play a role in coordinating movement and speech joint
- Brainstem, which connects the brain and spinal cord, and regulates breathing, eye rate, and blood pressure.
Brain development begins before birth and continues into machismo. Therefore, the simplest neural connections and skills grade first. Neural connections are the communications between different areas of the encephalon.
In the first few years of life, more than one million new neural connections course every second. Afterward, more complex circuits and skills develop. But the early stages of construction provide either a weak or stiff foundation for future encephalon development.
The Vi Stages of Primal Nervous System Evolution
The development of the brain and central nervous system (CNS) occurs during half-dozen major stages. However, the stages may overlap.
The six stages of CNS maturation are
- Dorsal Induction
- Ventral Induction
- Proliferation
- Migration
- Organization
- Myelination.
Fetal Brain Development: The First Four Stages
Allow'due south look more closely at the first four stages of encephalon growth. These stages occur during gestation.
Dorsal induction takes identify in the starting time 18 to 26 days of gestation (pregnancy). A "neural tube" develops in the embryo, which will somewhen go the brain and spinal cord.
Ventral induction takes place between calendar week 4 and calendar week 10 of gestation. In this phase, the three distinct brain structures are formed (cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem).
Proliferation is a 2-phase procedure in which the embryo produces cells that will develop into nerve cells. Called glioblasts and neuroblasts, these cells dissever and multiply to create the number of nerve cells a person will have for life—approximately 100 billion. In improver, nervus calls are called neurons.
Migration begins at six to eight weeks of gestation and continues through the eighth calendar month of pregnancy. In this stage, nerve cells move from the site of production to their final position somewhere in the CNS. For example, some cells will move to the cerebrum and some to the cerebellum. Moreover, some neurons form the corpus callosum. This is a bridge that connects the two cerebral hemispheres.
The Stages of Teen Encephalon Development and Beyond
The final two stages of brain development occur subsequently gestation. In fact, some types of brain changes continue through adulthood.
Organization begins at six months of gestation and continues well later birth. In this phase, neurons fully develop. Thus, each neuron includes
- A jail cell body
- An axon—a nerve cobweb that sends signals from the cell torso to other neurons
- Dendrites—hundreds of short branches that receive signals from other neurons.
The communication between axons and dendrites are called synapses. And new synapses tin can keep to form throughout a person's life. Therefore, teen brain development includes the formation of new synapses.
Myelination begins at half-dozen months of gestation and continues into adulthood. Hence, in this stage, the glial cells produce myelin. Myelin is a fatty roofing that helps neural connections occur more than efficiently.
The Functions of the Cerebral Cortex
The cognitive cortex has vi layers. Moreover, it is divided into lobes. Hence, these lobes are referred to by the names of the skull basic that cover them: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital. In addition, the limbic lobe incorporates parts of 3 of the other lobes (frontal, temporal, and parietal).
Each lobe is linked with diverse functions:
Frontal lobe (behind the forehead)— reasoning and abstract thinking, aggression, sexual behavior, smell, voluntary motility and articulation of voice communication
Parietal lobe (upper right and left sides of the head)—sensory awareness (including taste), language, abstract reasoning (math), body sensation
Temporal lobe (right and left side of the head, above and behind the ears)—emotions, compulsions, sexual behavior, estimation of language, hearing, memory
Occipital lobe (the back of the head)—processing visual stimuli.
The Prefrontal Cortex and Teen Brain Development
The encephalon develops in a back-to-front pattern. Hence, prefrontal cortex development is the last role of the brain maturation procedure. As a result, teen encephalon development is non yet complete.
Lack of frontal lobe maturity catalyzes a variety of teen behaviors. That'southward because the prefrontal cortex is involved with a wide range of functions, known as executive functions. These include the post-obit:
- Circuitous decision-making
- Planning skills
- Impulse control
- Emotional reactions
- Focusing attention
- Prioritizing competing information received all at once
- The power to ignore external distractions.
Therefore, children and teenagers are unable to access certain skills and abilities until later in the frontal lobe development process. Consequently, lack of executive functions can issue in teen risky behavior. And lack of emotional self-regulation skills tin affect teen mental health. Moreover, teens are also dealing with hormones as a result of puberty.
The Office of the Amygdala in Teen Brain Development and Mental Health
The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure in the temporal lobe of the cerebrum. It is responsible for immediate or "gut" reactions, including fear and aggressive behavior. Over the course of adolescence, the prefrontal cortex takes over greater control of the limbic organization. Hence, we learn to retrieve before we deed. Only before the prefrontal cortex matures, the amygdala is in charge.
Research shows that the amygdala plays an outsize role in teen behavior and mental wellness. For case, in one study, teens with a larger amygdala, relative to their total brain size, showed more aggressive behavior. Furthermore, in another report, teens with depression showed increased activity in the amygdala. This inquiry might explain why teenagers' feelings of aggression, fearfulness, and depression may be more than intense than those of adults.
Ane group of researchers 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. Side by side, they compared them to sixteen adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both groups were shown pictures of adult faces and asked to identify the emotion on the faces.
Afterward, the adults correctly identified the expression as fear. And the teens used works like "shocked," "surprised," and "angry" to describe the pictures. But even more than interesting, the teens and adults used different parts of their brains to process what they were feeling. The adults showed action in the frontal cortex, which governs reason and planning. But the teens mostly used the amygdala.
Hardwired for Gamble-Taking
Some researchers believe that there is an evolutionary purpose to the rate of teenagers' brain evolution. Hence, they theorize that the encephalon is wired for increased run a risk-taking and emotional reactivity during adolescence. Thus, these traits support teens to become more than independent and to be alert to dangers in their environment as they strike out on their own.
All the same, in today'southward world, teens don't take to fend for themselves in the wild. Therefore, their hardwiring sometimes leads to self-destructive take a chance-taking, such as
- Fighting or bullying
- Unsafe sexual behavior
- Booze, substance, and tobacco use
- Unsafe driving
- Poor self-care.
Furthermore, because teen brain development is still in progress, substance employ is more dangerous for them. New experiences that are pleasurable can very quickly become habits as a consequence of chemical reactions in the encephalon. Consequently, a teen can become addicted to alcohol or drugs more easily than an adult.
How Genes and Environment Touch Children and Teen Brain Evolution
Both nature and nurture influence brain development. Hence, genetics plays a role. However, events and circumstances during infancy and childhood also accept a powerful impact.
For instance, frequent and intense periods of stress weaken the compages of the developing brain. For case, such stress might include physical or emotional abuse, chronic neglect, caregiver substance abuse or mental illness, and exposure to violence. Therefore, the development of neural connections is dumb.
Equally a effect, this can atomic number 82 to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and physical and mental health. But positive, caring relationships with adults early in life can forbid or reverse the dissentious effects of stress.
In summary, teen brain evolution is at the root of many typical adolescent behaviors. Therefore, agreement this development can help parents cultivate patience and compassion.
Moreover, teens need healthy means to cope with the intense emotions catalyzed by the overactive amygdala. For example, outdoor adventures, creative expression, making music, and performing onstage are all healthy challenges that support stress resilience and teen mental health. And they stimulate the growing teenage encephalon in positive ways.
Images courtesy of unsplash
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Horm Behav. 2013 Jul;64(ii):298–313.
PNAS. March 2008;105(9):3652–3657.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2007 Apr;17(2):251–vii.
Harvard University Heart on the Developing Kid
Source: https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/mental-health/teen-brain-development/
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