- Research has shown why teens are more prone to engaging in risky behaviors.
- The brain undergoes major construction all throughout adolescence.
- Some parts of the brain are not fully developed until the mid-20s.
- The brain develops back to front.
- Executive functions like self-control, planning, rational decision making and judgment develop last.
What is going on in the teen brain?
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Teens are more likely to try dangerous things than adults because their impulse control and judgment had not fully developed.
- The part of the brain involved in reward-seeking and memory formation develops rapidly in adolescents.
- Teens feel more of a high than adults when they have pleasurable experiences.
- Teen brains get more quickly hooked to pleasurable things than adults brains.
- Our brain's reward system gives positive reinforcement for pleasurable things like food.
- We remember pleasurable things so that we do them again.
- Alcohol and drugs over stimulate the pleasure center of the brain, this pleasurable experience is imprinted in the memory.
- Since the teen brain is not fully developed, teens have a harder time controlling their impulses and stopping themselves from repeating a dangerous pleasure, such as using a drug.
