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The area of thebrainassociated withhigher - level thinking , empathy , andguiltis underused by teenagers , reports a new study . When consider an action , the teen medial prefrontal lens cortex , locate in front of the brain , does n’t get as much natural process asadults .
" Thinking strategies vary with age , " say Sarah - Jayne Blakemore of the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience . " As you get old you use more or less the same brain electronic internet to make decisions about your actions as you did when you were a teenager , but the important difference is that the distribution of that genius activity shifts from the back of the brain ( when you are a teenager ) to the front ( when you are an adult ) . "
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Teen thinking
In the discipline , teensand grownup were asked how they would react to certain situations . As they responded , researchers imaged their brains .
Although both adult and teenager react similarly to the question , their brain activity dissent . The medial prefrontal cortex was much more active in the adult than in the teens . However , the teenagers had much more activity in the superior worldly sulcus , the brain area involved in predicting future actions based on previous ones .
Adults were also much faster at figure out how their actions would touch themselves and other mass .
" We call up that a teenager ’s judgment of what they would do in a given situation is labor by the wide-eyed question : ' What would I do ? ' " Blakemore said . " Adults , on the other manus , ask : ' What would I do , give how I would finger and given how the people around me would find as a upshot of my actions ? ' "
build up sensitivity
Children bulge taking into account other people ’s feelings around the age of five . But the ability prepare well beyond this age , the new research suggests .
And while some of thissensitivitycould be the final result of undeveloped region in the brain , the experience that adults assume from societal interactions also fiddle an of import persona .
" Whatever the reasons , it is clear that teenagers are dealing with , not only massive hormonal shifts , but also substantial neural changes , " Blakemore said . " These change do not happen step by step and steadily between the ages of 0–18 . They come on in great spurts and pubescence is one of the most spectacular developmental stages . "
The results of the field were presented today at the BA Festival of Science in the UK .
