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The brain development during adolescence age essay
Alcohol affect on teen harvard
The brain development during adolescence age essay
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Should we throw a 13 year old in jail because of something he or she did when they were a teenager? Science says that the brain develops has proof that teens should be given a little leeway. The brain isn’t fully developed until adulthood. In the article, “The Teen Brain: It’s Just Not Grown Up Yet”, written by Richard Knox, it says “The nerve cells that connect teenagers frontal lobes with the rest of their brains are sluggish”. The teenage brain is also responsive to everything in its environment. Anything a teenager does the brain responds to it in various ways. In the article, “The Teen Brain: Behavior, Problem Solving, and Decision Making”, it says “The Amugdala, which is responsible for instinctual reactions including fear and aggressive behavior, …………………………..” Teens may make decisions that are not very smart, but it may be because the way the teen brain develops.
The brain develops over many years. Therefore teens make irresponsible decisions. The protagonist in the novel, “The Adoration of Jenna Fox”, by Mary E. Pearson, is a normal teenager. Jenna was with her friends one day doing the things teenagers would normally do. Things like partying. And of course where there’s a party, there’s alcohol. So Jenna and her friends were just trying to have a good time and started to drink. Maybe because her prefrontal cortex wasn’t developed, Jenna or her friends didn’t think that drinking wasn’t a good idea since they had to drive home. In the book, Jenna’s explained to her mother that the reason she got into a coma is because she had got into an accident. Jenna said, “I was the crossing the creek. I stepped on the first stone. And then……” The brain’s frontal lobes don’t connect until adulthood. That is the part of the brain that...
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...other didn’t like her. Jenna didn’t even know if they were her real family and sometimes she had wondered about it. While she watched the videos she would start to remember things. In the book Jenna said, “There are many words and definitions I have never lost. But some I am only just beginning to truly understand.” That shows that the brain can develop in mysterious ways. I believe that because of the way the brain develops for teens, it allowed Jenna to only remember some things and not all of it. If she was an adult then maybe she would have known some of it. I know she had to reconstruct her whole brain on a hard drive and learn everything over again but obviously she didn’t have to learn everything over because she still knew how to talk and remembered some things. Scientists are trying to figure why the brain does this. They’ve figured out most of it though.
She has been tricked into working for the man on the streets; Vulture. And she lacks making smart decisions which would help her get off the streets. She struggles with drugs and prostitution throughout the book. For instance, She uses drugs and is getting abused every day by Vulture. When she talked to Dylan, she told him "I was totally wasted last night. "(81). Ever since she was addicted to drugs, her relationship with Dylan gets shaky, which gives vulture the perfect opportunity to get her into prostitution. Towards the end of the book Jenna and Dylan meet up at a parking lot where someone was dropping her off, Dylan confronted Jenna and knew she was doing prostitution "Turning tricks. You're turning tricks!" - Dylan. He is furious, but Jenna doesn't seem to care all that much. It seems as if this life, has become standard for Jenna and that's why I think she will be stuck in prostitution until Vulture thinks she is no longer
Jenna has a past and memories that make up who she is regardless of the Jenna before the accident. Memories are vital because they make up an identity and every human has an identity. After waking up from a coma, Jenna doesn’t know her identity which leads her to think that she is not human. When Jenna started remembering who she once was, Jenna shaped into her old personality. Jenna shows this when she goes to Lily for help and Lily says, “Why are you telling me this and not your parents? I’m surprised she would ask. Is she testing me? We both know the answer. Because I always have” (Pearson 186). Jenna’s identity makes her who she is. She remembered the close bond she once had with Lily and regained a small part of Jenna Fox’s identity. More importantly Jenna realizes that she still has the same memories she did befor...
Over the years many violent crimes have been committed more by teenagers. The more serious crime the teenager did with psychology recommends that juveniles aren’t full responsible for what happen. In Anna Quindlen’s essay, The C Word in the Hallway, is about psychological autopsy with many peoples examples and how if health insurances provided coverage, then not many teens would have committed crimes. In Charlie Spence’s essay, Sixteen, talked about his locked up experience. There are crimes that aren’t that bad, but if a crime was committed so badly then the perpetrators should be locked away and be trialed as an adult.
Similarly, going along with the prior rebuttal of the importance of differentiating juvenile’s characteristics and actions of that of an adult, science is compiling more evidence of its vitality. Many adults can look back and reminisce about an action he or she did when younger and say, “Wow I cannot believe I did that.” Science has proven the reason behind that is because an adolescent’s brain has not yet fully matured. Tsui states “Studies conclusively established that the brain of an adolescent is not fully developed, particularly in the area of the prefrontal cortex, which is critical to higher order cognitive functioning and impulse control” (645). The facts of scientific research need to be taken into consideration when distinguishing
For example Paul Thompson an assistant professor of neurology who wrote “Startling finds on teenage brains” says that most teens are experiencing a wildfire of tissue loss in their brains, although it cannot be used to excuse their violent or homicidal behavior it can be used as evidence that teenagers are not yet adults so the legal system shouldn’t treat them as such”. Other people also believe it is wrong to convict a juvenile as an adult just because he/she made one “stupid mistake” for example in startling finds in the teenage brain, Brazill 14 years at the time took a gun to school and shot up the middle school teacher but they say Brazill made one “stupid mistake” and that him and many other teens are far from adulthood and that their minds set are not the same as an
As Paul Thompson states in his article Startling Finds on Teenage Brains from the Sacramento Bee, published on May 25, 2001, “.These frontal lobes,which inhibit our violent passions, rash action and regulate our emotions, are vastly immature throughout the teenage years.” He also says that “The loss[of brain tissue] was like a wildfire, and you see it in every teenager.”. This loss of brain tissue plays a role in the erratic behavior of teens, who cannot properly assess their emotions and thoughts. During this period of brain tissue loss, teens are unpredictable, adults do not know what their teen’s next move will be, teens themselves do not even know what their next move will be. As we grow our brains develop, therefore teen brains are not fully developed, so they cannot be held to the same standards as adults.
Beautiful Brains by David Dobbs is an article about why teenagers usually take more risks than adults. In the article Dobbs begins by discussing how his son once got in trouble for speeding down a highway just because he was curious to know what it felt like. He then goes into asking why teenagers often do "stupid" things and then explains that teens have always done that throughout time. He provides scientific evidence that the brain changes between the ages of 12 to 25 affecting our decision making. One way that a reader could interpret this data is that teenagers have a hard time using new parts of their brain and seem to be in a state of retardation. Dobb also describes the reckless acts of teenagers in order for them to adapt to any situation.
The article “Adolescent Brain Development and Underage Drinking in the United States: Identifying Risks of Alcohol Use in College Populations” written by Marisa Silveri, PhD, aims to emphasize the the negative behavioral consequences with underage alcohol use. Silveri is a highly decorated professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who has been studying the neurobiology of brain development and consequences of alcohol and drug abuse using preclinical and clinical models for two decades. Her substantial background in psychology and neurobiology make her a highly credible source, and improves the author’s chance of making the point really stick. The article is easy to follow, and split up in subcategories that each cover a specific point the author is trying to make. Professor Silveri, with great credibility, uses logic and also emotional appeal to effectively convince the reader that alcohol use affects the brain negatively, and the importance to discourage the excessive consumption of alcohol by adolescents.
"The teenage brain is like a car with a good accelerator but a weak brake. With powerful impulses under poor control, the likely result is a crash.” (Ritter). An adolescent does not have complete power over their impulses, unlike fully developed adults. “The frontal lobe includes the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive functions like planning, decision-making, the expression of emotion, and impulse control. The prefrontal cortex may not be completely developed until a person is in his or her mid-twenties. This explains why adolescents have less impulse control than adults, are less able to think through the long-term consequences of their decisions, and are more susceptible to peer pressure. Does it make sense, then, to punish a youth in the same way we punish adults?” (Harris). The brain w...
According to the law, children ages 7-15 legally do not know what is wrong or what is right to do. Children who do not know what is wrong or right can commit a crime without knowing how bad the consequences can be. Immature children do not know most factors the way regular human beings know and can commit more errors by accident than other human beings will commit on purpose. Immature children should not be sentenced to life because they rarely know the rules of life and unlike most adults; they do not know what is good or bad about it. For example, “juveniles are different from adults in terms of brain development and maturity levels” (Corrington 1). Crimes children or immatures can commit include killing someone in a fight, choking someone out, or running over someone by accident. Arguments can also build in by saying teenagers should get sentenced to life for being immature and doing things immaturely. If a young teenager runs over another teenager or children and kills them, of course the parents are going to want the responsible driver to pay for what they have done. Sometimes jail is not enough and the parents or family members of victims want to kill whoever was responsible for the disgrace that happened. A big percentage of people do not understand that young children do not know what adults are capable of doing if it was
While many argue that juveniles who commit serious crimes, such as murder, should be treated as adults, the fact is, juveniles under the age of eighteen, are not adults, and should not be treated as such. Juveniles are not mature enough or developed psychologically, and, therefore, do not consider the consequences of their actions. In the article, “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” by Thompson, the writer argues that juveniles are not adults. Their brains develop at different stages and they learn skills that they need to learn at a certain time.
The human brain is so interesting because of all of its functions. The brain is so unique every function is unique and the brain is capable of doing anything. In the video “Building Your Brain: Inside the Human Body” we can see how all of this function take place and see the wonderful things are brain can do. In the video “Into the Mind: Emotions” we can also see how important our brain is when it comes to our emotions. These two videos discuss really important things about our brain.
During this corse I lean multiple ways that the brain changes mentally as a person ages, such as cognitive development. There are many theories about how cognitive development occurs in children. Jean Piaget had a theory of cognitive development that included 3 different stages, the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, and the concrete operational stage. The stages begin with learning though senses and actions, to have magical and egotistic thinking, to being able to think logically but not abstractly. Piaget also believed that people’s brains create schemas, almost like folders for the ideas of the brain, in order to organized they can understand them. When someone takes in new information,
Many teenagers do not believe that alcohol will damage their mind frame with the choices made while intoxicated are wrong because alcohol can lead to so many regrets that you can never go back and change. Drinking alcohol at a young age can cause your brain from developing properly, prevent oneself from rationalizing with reason while under the influence, and putting yourself or others in danger. Mr. Behan once said, “One drink is plenty and a thousand is not enough” (Brendan Behan). At a young age, you truly cannot recognize what your limitations are when one reasons with oneself that they are having an epic time despite what it will cost you.
The brain is an astonishing product of evolution. This can be seen by our numerous technological developments and society structure. The brain has always been the most important organ for species that had developed past the cellular stage and has always performed the same functions that it does now but has developed constantly to where it is now through growth and a reorganization of its’ primary functions and gained the ability to learn has been something that the human brain does better than other brains. Our brains have not always been like this and many social and biological factors have led us to where they are now.