The Teenage Brain

We usually tend to believe our brains go through  change and development only during the early years of our lives. At least I did, but in our Psychology class we watched a video on the teenage brain this week and learned other wise. Apparently when we reach adolescence our brain isn’t fully developed yet, and the frontal lobe overcomes many changes during these years especially. Because of the changes occurring teenagers tend to feel and behave in ways their parents don’t get. The typical behaviors reported on teenagers are, thinking nobody seems to understand them (because they don’t), forgetting certain tasks they were asked to perform, and most teenagers suffer from sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is a huge damage to the brain, especially in a teenager’s brain since it needs the rest because of its changing. According to studies an adolescent needs 9hrs of sleep per night; when they don’t you can tell with their moods and performance.  Another characteristic of teenagers is there pursuit for thrill; this leads them to poor decision making, teenagers are reckless and irresponsible (that seems to be the stereo type). Do to this quest for thrill adolescent years is a time of high risk, since decision making is very impulsive. These decisions may lead to lifelong consequences; therefore parents should be cautious when dealing with a teenager.

Picture:
http://www.google.hn/imgres?imgurl=http://kevinbeirne.webs.com/Drug%2520graphic.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dictionaryfordads.com/drugaddictionprevention.htm&usg=__XwOKXSyTNNRqhs72vL4ClZLHJCQ=&h=374&w=374&sz=46&hl=es&start=0&sig2=1HnZ1Mth7lF_H080R02hpQ&zoom=1&tbnid=50XMQAsKiwaqCM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=127&ei=xAWkTK-QFMH78Abj7KjLCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dteenagrs%2Bdrugs%2Band%2Balcohol%26hl%3Des%26biw%3D999%26bih%3D307%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=300&oei=xAWkTK-QFMH78Abj7KjLCQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0&tx=82&ty=60