What happens to the brain of teenagers

Transitional age is a difficult period for parents and their children. The child seeks to get rid of guardianship, learns to make independent decisions and makes many mistakes. Moms and dads are not always ready for this, and every day they understand their sons and daughters less and less.

Isabelle Filliosa, a well-known French psychotherapist, clinical psychologist, will help fix this. Leading authority on positive parenting, best-selling author, translated into many languages. In Russian, her book “We do not understand each other. How to find a common language with a teenager ”was published by the AST publishing house. Lifehacker publishes the second chapter.

---

They grow 14–24 centimeters in two years. Growth begins with the nose and feet, then the limbs and torso follow. Some changes can be seen: the skin becomes rougher, some people have acne on their faces, their hair becomes oily. Breasts grow, other secondary sexual characteristics appear... Other changes can be felt with the help of smell: they sweat profusely, secretion of hormones accompanied by strong, even pungent odors... Some changes can be heard: the voice of girls changes gradually, the voice of boys - sharply, passing through the period breaking. There is still something that we do not see, more precisely, the consequences of which we observe in emotional manifestations and behavior. In adolescence, complex processes take place in the human body. The brain undergoes a particularly serious transformation. It functions quite well, but becomes surprisingly plastic.

Teen does stunning successes in the ability to think, learn, in artistic creativity and socialization, however, other areas of the brain become less functional for a while.

Brain reorganization

The brain has gray and white matter. Gray matter consists of clusters of neurons (nerve cells) and dendrites (their short processes), as well as glial cells. It is concentrated in the cerebral cortex, the cerebellar cortex, and also in the spinal cord. It is also found in the deep structures of the brain brain in the form of clusters of nerve cells called nuclei. The white matter gets its name from the whitish thick fatty membrane. It consists of bundles of axons, covered, like insulation, with myelin. There are periodic breaks in the myelin sheath called nodes of Ranvier. Myelin allows electrical signals to jump from node to node, which greatly increases the speed at which nerve impulses are transmitted.

Until the age of 11 in girls and 12 years in boys, the number of neurons increases and connections are established between them. Gray matter becomes larger, the cerebral cortex thickens. As you gain experience, new knowledge and skills many neural pathways are laid. At 11–12 years of age, the maximum amount of gray matter is formed in the prefrontal zone. The prefrontal zone reaches its greatest activity before pruning (pruning). Sometimes folding routes are complex, and there are multiple ways to arrive at the same answer. In order to increase its efficiency, the brain begins to redevelop its space. To optimize routes, he resorts to pruning and myelination. Pruning is needed to eliminate inefficient, too tortuous or redundant paths. Myelination is like building a highway: myelin wraps around axons—long neuronal fibers—so that nerve impulses can travel at high speeds.

During the period of increase in the volume of white matter and decrease in the number of neurons, the gray matter becomes more and more thin. Have you ever seen a tree after pruning? It is not surprising that our teenager cannot mobilize all the necessary skills at the moment. Some even previously learned skills practically disappear! When the new expressways open to traffic, it will be rapid, but for now some smaller roads have already closed to traffic while others are congested… This is a very sensitive period as the cutting is not done by chance. The most frequently used routes are strengthened, the rest are removed. The interaction of a teenager with his environment literally shapes his neural networks. Restructuring forces the teenage brain to revisit the routes laid down in childhood. Old traumas are activated, remaining unconscious and causing painful feelings that the teenager does not understand and which he tends to project into figures attachments, especially to the main one - mother (or the person who cared for him more than others in the first nine months his life).

Decreased ability to control one's impulses

Myelination occurs from the back of the brain to the front. The prefrontal zones will be the last where myelination ends - at about the age of 25 years. In the brainstem are areas responsible for sensation and movement. The parietal zones govern language comprehension, memory, spatial orientation, and conceptualization. The prefrontal areas are responsible for free will, impulse control, anticipation, planning, organization, empathy, assessing the consequences of their actions, making decisions to act or refrain from acting... As you can see, this list indicates what teenagers usually have in short supply! And instead of reproaching them for these shortcomings, we should realize that a natural process is going on in their brain, that the brain is in the process of reorganization.

In fact, a teenager needs more time to cope with his impulses. This requires more effort from him than from an adult or a small child. Insults, punishments and threats will only exacerbate the problem, increasing stress and thereby further reducing the mobilization resource of the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

The severity of the reaction

The amygdala, or amygdala, are small structures in the center of the brain, shaped like an almond kernel, which, in particular, are responsible for stressful reaction.

The amygdala takes only 70 milliseconds to react to danger, while the area which receives and interprets visual information, begins to process it only after 100 milliseconds!

During adolescence, the amygdala is especially reactive. Since the areas of the brain responsible for processing information and modulating responses are not yet sufficiently myelinated, the alarm signal is triggered faster and louder than in adults. The teenager reacts immediately. His gas pedal is so sensitive that it kicks in before he can even make a decision, and the brake pedal is too hard, and the wires leading to the brake pads often fail.

Can a teenager be trusted?

A balloon appears on the screen. With each click of the mouse, the teenager inflates it and earns five kopecks. If the balloon bursts, he will lose all winnings. At 12-13 years old, a teenager performs worse on a test than at 8! In his brain, the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area (VTA)—structures involved in the reward system in anticipation of pleasure—secrete more dopaminethan in the brain of an adult or a child. They encourage the teenager to chase strong emotions and bet on quick wins. His intellectual and logical abilities are on top, but the temptations are too strong!

Yeees! You can be sure of him: he will certainly mess up. His reaction is quite predictable. At the request of a friend, under the influence of a group, out of distraction, or simply if something seems to him a potential source of pleasure, he will not be deterred by any possible risk, much less a ban. Against, ban excites the nucleus accumbens and sharply reduces the ability to assess danger.

When he talks to you, your teen may appear mature, thoughtful, and in control. However, this is how he is... But everything changes as soon as he is in the company of peers or under strong emotional influence, in a state of lack of sleep or under the influence of stress. The ability to resist a sudden impulse seems to be turned off. Not completely, of course, but the excitement and influence of others easily drown her out.

Let's leave the illusion that if we trust him, everything will work out. To say: “Only no alcohol, I trust you!” is as useless (and counterproductive) as ripping him off. Promise Do not smoke. Let's not put our teenagers ahead of time in the position of people who betrayed our trust, because they do not have the skills necessary to withstand the pressure of the group.

Trusting a teenager does not mean relying on the fact that he will behave as we expect - it means trusting him more globally. Yes, he will get lost, he will fall, he will run into problems... but that is how he gains the ability to cope with trouble.

Key points

Adolescence, often experienced as a “difficult time” by parents, is a critical developmental stage. neural circuits, a time of incredibly massive brain building that we are witnessing. Our task is to protect the territory where the work is being carried out and to supply the necessary materials on time.

The world-famous psychotherapist, clinical and child psychologist Isabelle Filliosa collected in the book “We do not understand each other. How to find a common language with a teenager "tips and exercises for moms and dads that will help you establish contact with a growing child and correctly show the mechanisms parental influence.

The author describes in detail the specifics of each age and considers not only the psychology of adolescents, but also some biological and physiological processes. This allows you to take a fresh look at the motives of behavior, which are often unknown to both parents and adolescents themselves.

Buy a book