7.4: Brain Development During Adolescence
- Page ID
- 60483
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Your brain does not keep getting bigger as you get older
But that doesn’t mean your brain is done maturing
The teen brain is ready to learn and adapt
Many mental disorders appear during adolescence
The teen brain is resilient
Teens need more sleep than children and adults
Sleep
- amygdala
- part of the limbic system in the brain, which is involved with emotions and emotional responses and is particularly active during puberty
- dopamine
- a neurotransmitter in the brain that plays a role in pleasure and the reward system; increases in the limbic system and later in the prefrontal cortex during adolescence
- frontal lobes
- the parts of the brain involved in impulse control, planning, and higher order thinking; still developing in adolescence
- limbic system
- structures in the brain (including the amygdala) that involve processing emotional experience and social information and determining rewards and punishments; develops years before the prefrontal cortex
- melatonin
- sleep hormone whose levels rise later at night and decrease later in the morning for teens, compared to children and adults
- myelination
- insulation of neurons’ axons with fatty substance (myelin sheath) that helps speed up the processing of information; myelination starts to increase in the prefrontal cortex during adolescence
- prefrontal cortex
- part of the frontal lobes, involved with decision making, cognitive control, and other higher order functions; prefrontal cortex develops further during adolescence
- serotonin
- ”calming chemical,” a neurotransmitter in the brain involved with the regulation of mood and behavior; serotonin levels increase in the limbic system during adolescence
- synaptic pruning
- connections in the brain that are not used much are lost so that other connections can be strengthened; this pruning happens with prefrontal cortex connections in adolescence