Mysteries of the Teenage Brain
Illustration by Dan Page.
鈥淥ver the years, we鈥檝e learned that adolescence is an incredibly important time for brain development, when the brain is particularly malleable and receptive to its environment...But we only have broad brush strokes. We need a clearer picture.鈥
INC Executive Director and former ICS Director Dr. Marie Banich was profiled in the Coloradan this month about her life's work, and how teenagers and young adults think and act differently from grownups.
"In a series of studies in the early 2000s funded by the MacArthur Foundation, Banich and colleagues showed that teens lack a mature ability to conceptualize the future, have less self-control, are less organized in their decision making, are more vulnerable to peer pressure 鈥 and are much more sensitive to reward than to punishment. By the early-to-mid 20s, these traits tend to fade. Said Banich, 鈥淚n adolescence, the carrot is huge and the stick is practically invisible.鈥 Work by her and others helped influence the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 2005 decision to abolish the death penalty for juveniles and 2010 decision to eliminate, for them, most life sentences without parole."
Read more at the Coloradan:
Photo courtesy Marie Banich.