The Teen Brain Still Under Construction Summary

In the nonfiction article “The Teen Brain: Still under construction” by NIMH, the author believes the teen brain is still developing emotionally, intellectually, and hormonally.

During the adolescents, stage evidence shows that teens emotions height during this age and therefore they become more emotionally active. This is due to the development of brain centers and signaling molecules of the brain's reward system. This is how the brain encourages or motivates behavior with the feeling of pleasure. “ These age-related changes shape how much different parts of the brain are activated in response to experience and in the terms of behavior, the urgency and intensity of emotional reactions.” As the brain matures throughout the teen years many of them face the challenge of emotional change for the first time. The parts of the brain that deals with emotions and allows for

Further research indicates that a person's intellectual capacity is at its greatest during these years. So much so that it could be compared to that of a full grown adult. The brain acts as a sponge soaking up all the information around it, learning as much as it can. “Adolescents and adults seem to engage different parts of their brain to different extents…” Thought the intellectual ability of a teen can match that of an adult does not mean that they think and interpret things the same. While performing tasks such as solving different problems and test, studies show that, when compared side by side, teens use different parts of the brain to different extents then the adult. This is due to the fact that the brain is still “Under Construction”. Therefore teen must use different parts of the brain for the same task as not all aspects of the brain are ready to handle some tasks, causing different results in different emotional and behavioral responses. This indicates the teen brain is still maturing