Recent research suggests teenagers’ brains are particularly suited to coping with volatility and new experiences, including socialising and venturing to unknown places
TEENAGERS, eh, what are they like? They have a reputation for being difficult, reckless and self-absorbed, but surely these negative stereotypes can’t be the whole story. Most other animals fly the nest soon after puberty, and none, including our closest primate relatives, has the prolonged adolescence that we do. Why would humans have evolved this peculiar life stage? A closer look at the teenage brain suggests it brings a hidden evolutionary advantage.
The past two decades of research has emphasised that the cerebral cortex, the brain region central to higher processing and cognitive control,. By contrast, regions that are sensitive to rewards – including an area called the ventral striatum – are firing on all cylinders by our mid-teens. This has bolstered the narrative that the, with its overactive reward system causing erratic, sub-optimal decision-making. Early assessments of adolescent cognitive performance seemed to support this.
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