Finding out how the teenager's brain works.

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

Neurons that fire together-wire together !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22530573

We were all young once...The past shapes the present which in turn shapes the future...

Metta Zenda

[Erik Ezrin]

Nice, thanks for sharing. Also love your signature btw

I also wonder what the influence of stuff like internet and (social) media is on the teenage brain. I notice that it hasn't quite helped me with concentration, and that my focus tends to be more short and snippy most of the time rather than long and super concentrated. Sometimes I can stay in focus, but I'm distracted really easily, and I wonder whether internet with it's constant distractions has had some contribution in that.

I think also that the teenage years are the period where people actually 'find' themselves and who they truly are, etc. and that's why so many teenagers explore crazy things or take many risks; they just want to find out what is right for them.
But what if someone isn't allowed to do this as a teen? And is 'suppressed' into 'behaving normal', what kind of effect does THAT have on a person's development?

So many questions, lol. I wish I, or any scientist, knew the answers though.

[Jamie D]

Zenda, if you can figure out how a teenager's brain works, you could win a Nobel Prize! 

[Erik Ezrin]

If anyone could ever figure out how the brain in general works too

[brainiac]

You know I'm gonna post in any topic with "brain" in the title.

If anyone could ever figure out how the brain in general works too

Heyyy, we're working on it! Give us another century...

The main thing we know about as to why teenagers act the way they do is frontal lobe development. The frontal lobes are responsible for inhibiting impulses, keeping emotions in check, connecting actions to consequences, error monitoring, juggling multiple things in memory, risk calculation etc. It's thought that this part of the brain develops more slowly than others, which is why you can get adult-like behavior in teenagers without the adult-like consideration of consequences and risk and emotional regulation. The scientists here are examining the rewiring of connections within/going to and from the frontal cortex, which is an essential part of understanding what's going on.

The imaging technique they used to demonstrate the wiring is called Diffusion Tensor Imaging--it's really cool. What we call "grey matter" is the cortex, the surface of the brain where higher-level processing tends to occur. Underneath that is "white matter", so-called because of the light-colored, fatty myelin sheaths insulating the axons so that they can send signals faster. White matter is mainly used to send information from one part of the brain to the other, and DTI shows these fiber tracts, essentially showing us how parts of the brain are interconnected.

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

My signature is an old Zen saying...Buddhism has always known that humans could change how they chose to view life, hence the numerous meditation techniques/tools for doing so...However the interesting thing is, science has recently[over the last 10-20 or so years] found  the brain's neuro pathways can be changed due to the neuroplasticity of the brain "Neuron that fire together-wire together!"

I'm sure Brainiac could enlighten us on the workings of the neuroplasticity of the brain [I'm hoping in layman's term]...

Food for "thought"  and "Thinking is just 'movement' confined to the brain !"

Metta Zenda

[XchristineX]

I know how a teenage brain works


Like this

Sex sex sex sex sex junk food sex sex sex junk food sex sex sex

[Anatta]

I know how a teenage brain works


Like this

Sex sex sex sex sex junk food sex sex sex junk food sex sex sex

Kia Ora Christine,

Regardless of age that's how some people's brains work full stop 

Metta Zenda