Rating: 
Summary: A prescription for perplexed parents
Review: "They'll grow out of it", said Granny. "Don't give up on them", says neuroscientist Jay Giedd. Between these two admonitions, Barbara Strauch vividly relates how old ideas of brain development have been overthrown by recent research. Her judgement of "recent" is expressed with the dismissive comment that any source found prior to 1996 was "too old". She thus adds another brick to the edifice being constructed in cognitive sciences. The studies have gone beyond research in human cognitive studies to include other primates - chimpanzees and monkeys in demonstrating the roots of human behaviour. These findings are providing a wealth of new insights into our evolutionary roots. Strauch has contributed much in our knowledge of who we are in the animal kingdom. Although the studies are new, and further research is necessary, Strauch explains the patterns that are emerging. Further work can only provide more enlightenment.Although her research covers many fields and countless workers, the key source is Jay Giedd. Giedd was prompted by data showing how adolescent brains exhibited unexpected changes. "Gray matter", that term we so often blithely use to indicate the brain and mind, was expanding in teens. It actually grows beyond that of the average adult, then "dramatically thinning down" some time later. This find suggested many changes are occurring in teen brains - making them, in Strauch's estimate, "a bit crazy . . . but crazy by design". She reminds us throughout the book that while teenagers may appear physically mature in stature, what is going on in their brains is unfinished. They may look like us, but their behaviour is generally radically different. Incomplete brain development is the root cause of these departures from what we consider "normal". It was Giedd's research that sought to provide a baseline of what is "normal" for our children in those tumultuous years. With the wide-ranging sources she uses, Strauch takes us through all the problems parents face in trying to comprehend the vagaries of teen behaviour. Sex, bizarre sleeping patterns, drugs and alcohol use by teens all have come under new scrutiny by various research teams. They stress the vulnerability of the teen brain to nicotine, alcohol and other toxins. While this may seem obvious, the mechanics of why teens engage in heavy drinking bouts, for example, show how important parental knowledge of the background and impact of these events can be to teen health. Parents shouldn't dismiss such behaviour as "something they'll grow out of" since damage to brain structure can be permanent. Although the evolutionary roots are becoming clear, parental concern remains a major factor in assuring teens don't stumble into damaging behaviour. As one of the first "popular" books in this emerging field, Strauch's sources are almost entirely academic journals. We rely on her reputation as a New York Times health section columnist to have "done her homework" and there's little doubt she's done so. However, her own role as a mother of teens provides additional enhancement to her reliability. If she has an axe to grind, it is purely one of informing us on topics of concern to us as parents. While this book may be a "first" and may be modified by later studies, the information presented is far too important to ignore. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful whirlrwind tour into the teenager's brain & mind
Review: Barbara Strauch has offered us a beautifully written account of her journey to understand the cutting edge of knowledge and modern scientific exploration of the adolescent brain. Through her clear and accessible writing, we are given the chance to hear the voices of scientists focusing their current work on imaging the changes in the teen's brain: insights into changes that help us (as parents, as professionals, as former teens ourselves) to understand the wild and confusing time of adolescent turmoil and transformation. As a parent, I found the book extremely entertaining, illuminating, and reassuring. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist who writes about the brain, the mind, and human relationships, I found the book to be an extremely useful resource for the teens and parents in my practice and seminars. Barbara Strauch has succeeded in helping us to understand our teenagers in a more compassionate light, opening the door to possibilities for improved relationships, and even a deeper understanding of ourselves. A wonderful treat for anyone interested in knowing more about how we transition from childhood to adulthood.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful whirlrwind tour into the teenager's brain & mind
Review: Barbara Strauch has offered us a beautifully written account of her journey to understand the cutting edge of knowledge and modern scientific exploration of the adolescent brain. Through her clear and accessible writing, we are given the chance to hear the voices of scientists focusing their current work on imaging the changes in the teen's brain: insights into changes that help us (as parents, as professionals, as former teens ourselves) to understand the wild and confusing time of adolescent turmoil and transformation. As a parent, I found the book extremely entertaining, illuminating, and reassuring. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist who writes about the brain, the mind, and human relationships, I found the book to be an extremely useful resource for the teens and parents in my practice and seminars. Barbara Strauch has succeeded in helping us to understand our teenagers in a more compassionate light, opening the door to possibilities for improved relationships, and even a deeper understanding of ourselves. A wonderful treat for anyone interested in knowing more about how we transition from childhood to adulthood.
Rating:
Summary: Any Parent's "Must" Read
Review: Fascinating, informative and helpful to any parent who has raised, is raising, or will be raising a teenager. A definite "required reading" for anyone involved with teens, be it parent, teacher, judiciary, law enforcement, etc. Highly recommended. It certainly makes sense of this senseless creature!
Rating:
Summary: Any Parent's "Must" Read
Review: Fascinating, informative and helpful to any parent who has raised, is raising, or will be raising a teenager. A definite "required reading" for anyone involved with teens, be it parent, teacher, judiciary, law enforcement, etc. Highly recommended. It certainly makes sense of this senseless creature!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and reassuring book.
Review: I don't have children, but I do have an interest in mind and the brain, so when an on-line friend, Steven Haines, recommended it I decided to read The Primal Teen. As catchy as the title may sound, the book is actually quite serious about the subject of the developing teenage brain. Although the author is not herself a neurologist or neuroscientist, she is a skillful journalist (New York Times and Newsday). The topic is well researched with primary sources taken from prestigious professional journals like Nature Neuroscience, Brain Research, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Cerebral Cortex, Annals of Neurology, etc. While some of those articles cited are late 1980s, most are 1997 to 2002 (the book was published in 2003). Ms Strauch also interviewed some of the researchers personally for their input on what the scientific data are likely to mean and how it impacts teens and their families. Topics covered are: where the new data are coming from; teens and impulsive behavior; the whens, wheres, and whys of changes in the structure of the brain; what animal studies have to say about development of the brain in adolescents; why teens take risks; why teens seem to keep late hours and sleep late in the day; the chemistry of the brain and puberty; and the effects of drugs, tobacco and alcohol on growing brains. I was a little frustrated with the lack of actual suggestions for parents on how to cope with their changing teen. To some extent the anecdotal stories of some of the researchers who had teenaged children and those from the author herself provided insight into possible approaches, but on the whole very little by the way of helpful problem solving was offered. This may well be because too little has yet been done to make definite statements. The book at least helps a parent understand that their teenagers are "normal" despite the apparent erratic behavior they exhibit, that patience is the most likely route to a successful rite of passage, and most importantly that "this too will pass." An interesting and reassuring book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book! An instant classic
Review: I loved this book. The 'Primal Teen' is funny, superbly written, and packed with the latest science of brain development. The author explains how the brain develops in childhood, in the teenage years, and beyond, and how this provides insights into the inner workings of the teenage mind. An award winning science and medical Editor for the New York Times, Barbara Strauch makes the latest scientific findings on the teenage brain come to life. The 'Primal Teen' distils a year long personal enquiry into an action packed journey. Based on insightful interviews of experts in the science of brain development, the author shows how their findings can be relevant and exciting for parents. She brings together a fascinating array of findings, and a good measure of common sense, to help explain why teens are the way they are, and how to better understand the teenage years. The book is extraordinarily well researched; as its chapters unfold, the author beautifully conveys the excitement and bewildering implications of current research on brain development. Recent years have seen a revolution in this field. Biological changes in the teenage brain tie in with the complex behavioral changes as well, and underlie many aspects of cognitive, emotional and social maturation in early and late adolescence. The author combines cameos of the researchers she interviewed with carefully explained summaries of their findings and why they are relevant. As a researcher in the field, I think this book is a treasure; it's very difficult to put down once you start reading it. My wife loved it as well. This book shows how the science of teenage development is surprising, perplexing, and fascinating. The 'Primal Teen' will be an instant classic. It fills a gap that no academic book could fill: it's a whirlwind introduction to what makes teenagers tick.
Rating:
Summary: Primal Primer
Review: I loved this book. The `Primal Teen' is funny, superbly written, and packed with the latest science of brain development. The author explains how the brain develops in childhood, in the teenage years, and beyond, and how this provides insights into the inner workings of the teenage mind. An award winning science and medical Editor for the New York Times, Barbara Strauch makes the latest scientific findings on the teenage brain come to life. The `Primal Teen' distils a year long personal enquiry into an action packed journey. Based on insightful interviews of experts in the science of brain development, the author shows how their findings can be relevant and exciting for parents. She brings together a fascinating array of findings, and a good measure of common sense, to help explain why teens are the way they are, and how to better understand the teenage years. The book is extraordinarily well researched; as its chapters unfold, the author beautifully conveys the excitement and bewildering implications of current research on brain development. Recent years have seen a revolution in this field. Biological changes in the teenage brain tie in with the complex behavioral changes as well, and underlie many aspects of cognitive, emotional and social maturation in early and late adolescence. The author combines cameos of the researchers she interviewed with carefully explained summaries of their findings and why they are relevant. As a researcher in the field, I think this book is a treasure; it's very difficult to put down once you start reading it. My wife loved it as well. This book shows how the science of teenage development is surprising, perplexing, and fascinating. The `Primal Teen' will be an instant classic. It fills a gap that no academic book could fill: it's a whirlwind introduction to what makes teenagers tick.
Rating: 
Summary: What's Wrong with Adult Brains?
Review: I worked with children and teens in their families for 15 years, and what I saw is
reflected in cold statistics--American adults don’t need flattering reassurances that we’re
okay, we need a hard slap of reality. Sixty percent of American parents’ marriages end in
divorce today, subjecting kids to unbelievable conflicts. American adults and parents are,
by far, the most violent, drug-abusing, criminally arrested, imprisoned, obese, and
unstable of any Western nation, and all of these adult crises have skyrocketed in the last
four decades.
Today, 20 million teens have been subjected to their parents’ family breakup, 10
million young people grow up with parents who are heavy drinkers or dug addicts, more
than 1 million youths suffer parents arrested for felonies every year (several hundred
thousand of whose parents are imprisoned), and hundreds of thousands of youths are
confirmed victims of violent and sexual abuses in their homes every year. Compared to
parents in other Western countries. Americans are far more likely to use psychiatrists,
Ritalin, forced institutionalization, police interventions, harsh restrictions such as curfews
and drug tests, violent punishments, and lengthy imprisonments on children and
teens--and we complain we STILL can't control our kids!
Strauch’s book, of course, sticks safely to abstract theories and pleasing anecdotes
and touches on none of these disturbing realities. She gushes over pompous claims by a
few self-praising bio-researchers that their overblown, post-1996 notions invalidate all
the thousands of practical research studies on adolescents and adults that came before.
Unfortunately, neurobiological research is notoriously inconclusive--conscientious
experts (not numbered among the ones Strauch interviews) readily admit that our
knowledge of how brain organization processes affect real-world behavior is woefully
primitive.
What counts is that decades of practical research tests involving real-life decision
making have shown that teenagers and adults think very much alike. In fact, teenage rates
of violent crime, homicide, suicide, unplanned pregnancy, HIV infection, heavy drinking,
drunken driving accidents, smoking, obesity, and so forth, closely follow the
corresponding rates among adults of their families and communities--a fact that is
impossible to explain if teenage and adult brains are fundamentally different.
The reason Strauch’s book has no “practical advice†for parents is because this
book has no relevance to practical, real-life situations beyond the self-serving anecdotes
she chooses. No wonder Americans praise and make best-sellers out of books that skip
over how alarmingly American middle-aged behavior has deteriorated and flatter us that
the whole problem is that teenagers can’t think straight.
Mike Males, Santa Cruz
Rating: 
Summary: Good point, fuzzy argument
Review: The strength of the book is in its message: teenager's brain undergoes a tremendous change, and realizing this would greatly help parents, teachers and others dealing with teens. The book's weakness is in the details: the science is muddled and the narrative often confused, leaving many of the open questions on the table.
The book's central point is that during teen years kids develop the part of the brain, prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for putting the brake mechanism in their decision making system. Without this part well developed, kids seem to have no way of restraining and analyzing their free-ranging emotions. Hence attitude problems, blow-ups and other unfortunate trademarks of the age.
This process of brain development helps better understand the behavioral peculiarities of teens (aloofness, thrill seeking, even drinking and smoking). The prefrontal cortex, which is under construction throughout the teen years, requires large amounts of dopamine, the neurotransmitter instrumental in our feeling of wellbeing. Because of this, during these years there is much less dopamine in other parts of the brain. So, to feel good teenagers need to bombard their brain with much stronger stimuli. Hence drugs, alcohol etc. Immediately, though, Strauch contradicts herself: she claims that teenagers are awash in dopamine, the "reds are redder" for them, they see the world in much accentuated colors. On top of that, estrogen, the hormone produced in women, and to a lesser extent in men, revs up dopamine as well. The author never comes to a conclusion on whether teenagers have dopamine in excess or lack it. For practical purposes, if much of teenage brain is lacking in dopamine and they are naturally looking for stimuli we should provide them with the ways to take safe risks (if they take a rock climbing class they may not want to drag race that car). If, instead, teenagers were swimming in dopamine, this strategy wouldn't be as insightful.
Smoking girls are found to loose 10% of their memory aptitude. But on the same page (186) nicotine is claimed to improve memory and learning. The score is never tallied: does nicotine enhance or inhibit brain functionality?
The gender differences are jumbled as well. The author reassures that women's brains, although smaller than men's, run "hotter". So the size does matter? No supporting evidence is offered. Estrogen, responsible for increase in dopamine, is much more abundant in woman's brain than in man's. But whether it contributes to age-specific differences between genders during teen years is never explored.
The book mentions, importantly, that good family relationships would outweigh the chemical and neurological imbalance of teenager's brain. This surprising fact should have been given much more attention in the book, since it may reinforce an action plan for a family of a teenager.
A good practical point is "ask for one thing at a time", since teenagers often seem incapable of keeping track of more than one task.
On balance, the heart of the book is in the right place, its brain - not quite. The main message - pay attention to this kid's brain development, you will understand much more of her - is fully deserving. The book's topic is important, and more coherent popular literature on it is needed. I hope that someone would pick up the slack.
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