The Adolescent Brain Potential and Vulnerabilities

Ever felt this way?  Unfocused  Apathetic  Impulsive  Disorganized  Sleepy  Emotional  Distracted

Stop acting like a Kid!?  Behaviour  Behaviour of an adolescent is sometimes less mature than their age…  why?  At  At this stage the brain is responding to a massive build up of connections: at age the brain develops 30% more neurons and connections than the adult brain. During adolescence the brain locks in its more used networks, and prunes away less used networks to allow a refined and efficient brain at what will become its normal adult size.

The brain experiences a massive growth spurt right as you enter high school. Talk about perfect timing!!!

What does the brain look like?

The Brain  One  One of the most complex things in the world Holds our memories  Tells  Tells our heart to beat and our muscles to move Allows us to learn and speak Allows us to feel emotions and have fun.

 Cerebellum  Cerebellum - coordinates all of movements and muscles to help you walk and remain balanced  Pons  Pons - Controls our breathing and heartbeat  Brain  Brain stem - Relays decisions that the brain makes to the rest of the body

 Frontal  Frontal lobe lobe – responsible for thinking, planning, judgement, strategizing, resisting impulses.  Parietal  Parietal lobe lobe – processing of touch stimuli.  Occipital  Occipital lobe lobe - sense of vision.  Temporal  Temporal lobe lobe – processing auditory stimuli.

How does the brain communicate?  Made  Made of approx 100 billion nerve cells called neurons.  They  They gather and transmit electrochemical signals - like the gates and wires in a computer.

Neurons  The  The axon axon is the long cable-like projection of the cell that carries the electrochemical message.  Dendrites  Dendrites or nerve endings endings are small branch like projections of the cell which make connections to other cells and allow the neuron to talk with other cells.

Uniqueness of the brain:  The  The brain is the only organ that sculpts itself through its experience with the world.  What  What we do with our brains in adolescence will help determine what our brains are like as an adult.

Myelination Stages  Development Stages  Birth to 2 years  2 to 7  7 to 12  Adolescence  Myelin Release  Motor control area, visual processing area and primary sensory area  Speaking and language comprehension  Memory, integrating sensory data and movement  Frontal Lobe - decision making, goal setting, reasoning.

Neurons that fire together, wire together  Learning  Learning is a matter of making connections between neurons, resulting in “neural “neural networks” networks” of neurons.

The process of Long Term Potentiation  When  When information is received a trail along a series of neurons is blazed making it easier for subsequent messages to fire along the same path. The more the path is re-fired the more permanent the message or new learning becomes.  Each  Each time an activity is repeated the bonds between neurons strengthen and expand, leading to an entire network developing which remembers the skill or information.

 When  When information is received a trail along a series of neurons is blazed making it easier for subsequent messages to fire along the same path. The more the path is re-fired the more permanent the message or new learning becomes.  Each  Each time an activity is repeated the bonds between neurons strengthen and expand, leading to an entire network developing which remembers the skill or information.

“Use It or Lose It”  During  During adolescence, there is a massive overproduction of neurons  Neurons  Neurons which aren’t used are pruned, and gone forever, but those that are used to form neural pathways will last a lifetime

.  Critical  Critical thinking: problem solving and decision making strengthen the frontal lobes.  After  After the age of 16 relatively few new connections are formed. The brain starts to cut back particularly in the frontal lobe. If it is not being used it will be cut back. “Use it or lose it.”  Can  Can be a dramatic shift in the maturation of adolescents between 16 and 19.

Adult/Adolescent  MRI  MRI shows that an adult brain processes emotional information differently.  Adults  Adults use the frontal lobe while the teenage brain uses the more primitive amygdala.

Amygdala vs. Frontal Lobe  The  The amygdala is responsible for pleasure, anger, fear.  Teenagers  Teenagers rely more on their amygdala than adults, who rely more on their frontal lobes.  The  The amydula triggers anger, misunderstanding, sexual interest, aggression, disorganization, emotional language.

Reactive vs Reflective:  Any  Any information received by the brain travels first to the amygdala.  The  The amygdala holds emotional memory - it tells you how you feel about things.  In  In the teenage brain, the amygdala is developing faster than the frontal lobes. It is maturing. Poor modulation of emotions - explosions.  So,  So, teenagers tend to be reactive not reflective. ( especially if reflection has not been encouraged at home or at school - those connections in the brain have not been established or reinforced.)

The Adolescent Brain Base of brain (amygdala) matures before the front of the brain (frontal lobe), resulting in: * propensity toward risky, impulsive behaviors * group setting may promote risk taking * poor planning and judgment * activities with high excitement and low effort are preferred * poor modulation of emotions (“hot” emotions more common than “cold” emotions) * heightened interest in novel stimuli

Making the World a Better Place As the frontal lobes mature, teens are increasingly capable of moral reasoning and idealism  teens become less self-absorbed and often turn idealism into activism

The Teenage Brain  The  The great irony of the teenage brain is that it is designed to learn from experimentation and risk, is not yet fully able to account for the long term consequences of these risks, and is more easily permanently damaged by certain risky behaviors such as drug use than an adult brain.  Thus  Thus it is important to carefully consider how your actions will impact your future.

You become good at what you do, and you suck at what you don’t. Think about what you want to be good at as an adult, and make sure you practice the skills required now.

The brain and drugs  Some  Some drugs lock onto the neuron and act like a pump, so the neuron releases more neurotransmitter.  Other  Other drugs block reabsorption or reuptake and cause unnatural floods of neurotransmitter.

The brain and drugs  Limbic  Limbic system - team wins, praise etc.  Drug  Drug use - creates intense feelings of pleasure - limbic system is flooded with dopamine  Brain  Brain starts changing - neurons sense more than enough dopamine so they reduce dopamine  Receptors,  Receptors, may also make less dopamine - result less dopamine - down regulation.  Some  Some neurons may also die.

The brain and drugs  Without  Without dose of the drug, dopamine levels in drug abuser’s brain are low - they feel flat, lifeless, depressed, joyless.  Now  Now a drug abuser needs drugs just to bring dopamine levels up to normal levels.  Larger  Larger amounts of the drug are needed to create a dopamine high (tolerance).

 How  How many times does someone have to take a drug to become addicted?  No  No one knows how many times a person can use a drug without changing his or her brain and becoming addicted.

Sleep  Adolescents  Adolescents require more sleep than children or adults but often are getting less sleep.  Sleep  Sleep is crucial for physical health - repair and healing, growth. is highly associated with mental health and with learning and memory consolidation.

Problems of sleep deprivation Miss out on REM sleep, crucial for learning and memory.  Increased  Increased anxiety, depression, poor judgment.  Slow  Slow reaction time, decreased immunity and increased accidents.

The teenage brain and alcohol  Different  Different reaction to alcohol in teenage and adult brain.  Less  Less sensitive to effects of intoxication and hangover, more sensitive to social disinhibition.  Many  Many brain areas that change in adolescence are particularly sensitive to alcohol.  Excessive  Excessive drinking - Perform significantly worse on memory tests.  Have  Have a smaller hippocampus, along with memory retrieval deficits.

Food  Protein  Protein - used to make neurotransmitters - eat lean protein - meat, fish, milk, cheese  Fat  Fat - the brain is more than 60% fat - fat plays a crucial role as messengers  Omega  Omega 3 fatty acids - essential to optimum performance of the brain e.g. fish like salmon, sardines, trout, tuna, herring, mackerel and anchovies  Eat  Eat foods rich in vitamins and minerals  Water  Water - brain needs to be fully hydrated so the circuitry works well

Food and the brain  Carbohydrates  Carbohydrates - grains, fruits and vegetables are key sources  Carbs  Carbs are broken down into glucose (sugar) which is the brain’s main source of energy

Elements of Learning  New  New experiences relate and add to your existing knowledge and create new connections within your neural networks.  Proper  Proper nutrition enables your brain to function at an optimal level.  Sleep  Sleep is required to solidify and organize neural networks, and is thus essential for learning.

Teen Brain > Under Construction  The  The adolescent brain is going under significant growth, only comparable to the first 3 years of life when complex skills like walking and speech are mastered  Short-term  Short-term memory increases 30% during adolescence  The  The activities teens invest their time and energy in influence what activities they’ll do as adults

“Every move you make, every step you take…”  The  The parietal lobes control spatial awareness and the fluidity of the body’s movements.  As  As the parietal lobes mature, the ability to become proficient in sport and musical instruments is particularly enhanced.

Subtle differences in facial expressions are more easily misinterpreted by a teenager than by an adult. Reading people’s faces is a skill that improves with age.

The emotional systems of the teenage brain are much more developed than the logical systems. However, as teenagers you can still choose whether your emotions control you or you control your emotions.

Imagine walking across a field once. Return in an hour, a week, a year. Will you see a path? Now imagine walking across a field ten times every day for a year. Will you now see your path? Practice does the same thing in your brain by creating pathways that are easy to find and follow.

Once you complete a new learning experience, it is important to let what you’ve learned settle. Take some time to sit quietly, or to go for a walk. This is how you save your new file. Then review what you’ve learned later that night. This tells your brain that what you’ve learned is important and should be stored carefully in an easy to access folder. Now, sleep on what you’ve learned. Your brain will reinforce and connect what you’ve learned if you enter your deep sleep cycles. Try to get at least eight hours a night. This creates the desktop shortcut to what you’ve learned.

Temperature affects your ability to concentrate. Cool temperatures are best for learning, particularly from text. Put on a sweater, turn the thermostat down a notch, and you’ll remember more of what you read.

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