The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids

Rating:
Summary: What you need to know about the teen brain
Review: This is an excellent, up-to-date, beautifully written book that should serve as a superb resource guide to parents and educators alike. Indeed, its accessible, readable, and personal account of teen brain development should be required reading for anyone living with or working with teenagers.

Rating:
Summary: What you need to know about the teen brain
Review: This is an excellent, up-to-date, beautifully written book that should serve as a superb resource guide to parents and educators alike. Indeed, its accessible, readable, and personal account of teen brain development should be required reading for anyone living with or working with teenagers.

Rating:
Summary: Adolescent Angst via MRI
Review: Why do teen-aqers shoplift, vandalize, argue illogically, indulge in high-risk activities, pierce their bodies, and exude obnoxious behavior? (feel free to add items to this list)

MRI studies of brain component size and activity document that adolescents' brains are unfinished, are chock full of neurological and hormonal changes, and work differently than the brains of adults.

In 1997, neuroscience made a surprising discovery. In early adolescence, the brain's gray matter - its outer layer - thickens, then dramatically thins out. In brain thickening, tiny branches of cells bloom madly, a process called "exuberance." This is followed by "pruning." As adolescence progresses, "there is an enormous loss of gray matter...a wholesale slashing of cell branches & synapses...a massive synaptic re-organization." This is very much like what happens at birth through late childhood: "Synapses reach adult levels. attain twice adult levels by age 1 or 2, then level off for several years. The synapses then begin a gradual slide, wiping out nearly half the connections."

Enjoy some selected excerpts from this timely book:

About Impulsivity:

"The frontal lobes, the very area that helps teen-agers make the right decisions, are the very last areas to reach stability...When shown fear producing images, teen-age brains 'lit up' in the amygdala, a key area for instinctual reactions such as fight or flight, anger, or 'I hate you, Mom.' When adults were shown the same stimulus, they 'lit up' in the frontal lobes...What can we expect if that inhibition machinery, the pre-frontal cortex, is not yet fully formed?"

About Nature vs Nurture:

"Much of the basic brain development is driven by genes, but much of the 'pruning' reflects the dominance of those connections which are used the most and grab the most neurochemical juice."

"Genes provide a rough outline for the brain that then uses its specific environment to fine-tune its development."

"As science continues to show how behavior and brain structure dance in tandem, we must be concerned about the types of experiences our teen-agers have."

"It will be highly beneficial if the new findings erase the misguided but popular thought that all important brain development occurs between ages zero and 3."

About myelination and synaptic re-organization:

"As adolescence progresses, nerve cells and axons in key brain areas get a layer of myelin, increasing speed and smoothness, but decreasing changeability. Myelin deposition increases 100% during teen-age years, more quickly in girls."

"Millions of connections are being hooked up. Millions are swept away. Neurochemicals wash over the teen-age brain, giving it a new paint job, a new look, a new chance at life."

"The cerebellum (associated with understanding social cues and jokes) blossoms, then consolidates; a process that spans adolescence and continues well into our 20's."

"The remodeling of the adolescent brain - a brain that science had considered largely finished, spreads over a wide range of systems. The gray matter grows denser, then abruptly scales back. The whole brain undergoes a proliferation of connections for dopamine, a neurotransmitter important for movement, alertness, and pleasure, and is prolific in teens. The neurons become myelinated, increasing their efficiency, but decreasing their plasticity."

Miscellany:

"The adolescent's brain - monkey, rat, or human - is far different from what scientists have thought in the past, and undergoes a remodeling process in a variety of species. As it turns out, teen-agers may indeed be a bit crazy, but crazy according to a primal blueprint."

"Brain chemicals that determine sleep patterns shift in adolescence."

"Nicotine's reach is broad. At least 20 different neurotransmitters are influenced, resulting in miswiring when teen-age brains are insulted by nicotine."

In the main substance of her book, the author covers lots of data. She quotes a particular reference, makes a comment, then moves on to another source and comment. Her method of compilation, for me, tends to make the reading a bit choppy. That being said, her content is excellent and she ties together her take home message in the last chapter quite well:

"The new science is not an excuse to forget that children of all ages grow best with parents who care and provide models of behavior, as well as traditional methods of brain enhancement, such as practice, practice, practice."

"If science continues to indicate that teen-age brains are less complete than we thought, it has huge implications in questions such as whether to allow a young teen-age girl to get an abortion without parental knowledge, or whether to prosecute a young teen-age boy as an adult."

This book tells me to maintain vigilance, appropriate consequences for behavior, and some influence over that all-important peer group. At the same time, take it easy. "The old instinctual knowledge familiar to our grandparents "They"ll grow out of it," now has a modern scientific foundation."

I highly recommend this thought provoking book.