The Cordova Times - The Amazing Adolescent Brain, Part II
Posted 02/17/2012
by Linda Burgess Chamberlain PhD, MPH - for the Cordova Times
The Emotional Brain Is in Transition
Teens often use the word ‘drama’ to describe what their lives feel like. It is this drama that can make working with teens challenging. You can promote a more peaceful adolescence and communicate more effectively with your students and patients by understanding how the teen brain thinks. Teens process information differently than do adults. While adults usually rely on the frontal lobes, the center of reasoning and language, to respond to situations, adolescents rely more on the amygdala; it controls a wide range of emotions. This means that teens are more likely than adults to respond emotionally to a situation. Then, too, teens may not be able to find the words to express their feelings. It also means that teens are prone to react more quickly and without considering the consequences of their actions. As they move through adolescence, teens learn to read other people’s emotions, but they still frequently misinterpret how others feel. For example, they may confuse sadness or concern with anger. Due to all the changes in the brain, teens get slower, for a while, at being able to identify emotions – their own and other people’s.
The developing adolescent brain is very vulnerable to stress and, in emotionally charged situations, teens may overreact. They may push the boundaries and break the rules. They may cry or get angry without apparent reason. As the brain matures, teens will operate more and more from the cortex, where reasoning and judgment occur.
Teachers and healthcare providers can help support teens in the following ways:
• Help teens to understand and make sense of their shifting emotions and mood swings by educating them about the changes that are occurring in the brain. Provide opportunities for teens to share their feelings with you. Ask open-ended questions such as, “How did that make you feel?” Develop scenarios and use role-plays to help them practice dealing with potentially difficult situations.
• Clearly state rules and expectations for behavior, and involve teens in creating a system of both rewards and consequences. For example in the classroom, teachers should clearly communicate the consequences for unacceptable school performance, such as late homework, unexplained missed classes, or failing grades. Equally important, teachers should provide rewards and offer consistent praise for a job well done.
• Talk to teens about age-appropriate, healthy ways to deal with stress. A few of the
many healthy ways to deal with stress include physical exercise, journaling, peer support groups, yoga, and meditation.
Male and Female Brains Are Not the Same
Gender and hormones influence how the human brain develops. Recognizing some of the differences between the male and female brain can help us to understand why teenage males and females often have different learning styles and behavioral patterns. The cortex is composed of gray matter and white matter. Gray matter is densely packed with cell bodies.
White matter consists of myelinated axons that form the connections between brain cells. The female brain has a higher proportion of gray matter while the male brain has a higher proportion of white matter. Having more gray matter may explain why young women are usually more efficient in processing information, often have stronger verbal skills, and usually excel at juggling several activities. Having more white matter appears to help the male brain transfer information throughout the brain. This can enhance young men’s spatial skills, such as navigation and solving math problems. A person whose brain thinks spatially often needs more space when learning; so many males may spread out their work assignments while their female classmates may not.
There are several structures in the brain that grow differently in adolescent females and males.
The hippocampus helps to transfer new information to long-term memory. The hippocampus is sensitive to the female hormone, estrogen, and grows faster and larger in young women.
Scientists believe that a larger hippocampus may explain females’ strong social skills. Females often excel at sizing up social situations, being emotionally supportive, and coordinating complex relationships. The amygdala and the hypothalamus are sensitive to male sex hormones and grow larger in young men. Both of these structures are involved in the body’s response to fear and danger. Enjoying contact sports, having increased sexual desire, and being more assertive are behaviors that make sense with the male growth spurt in the amygdala and hypothalamus. A busier, bigger amygdala may also explain why boys and young men need to move around more while learning compared to girls and young women, who tend to have a longer attention span that allows them to sit still and focus on one subject for longer periods of time.
In addition to these physiological differences, male and female brains mature at a different pace. The female brain matures sooner than the male brain. Youth serving professionals should evaluate where each teen is, neuro-developmentally, as opposed to assessments based solely on chronological age or grade level.
The following strategies can enhance teachers’ and youth serving professionals’ work with adolescent males and females:
• Promote gender-specific enrichment activities, tailored to the individual teen’s interests. Create opportunities for separate-sex education by creating all male and all female teams or work groups to take advantage of gender-based learning differences.
• Provide ample opportunities for females and males to engage in activities centered on
relationships. For example, volunteer and community service activities can help foster
communication and promote a sense of connectedness. Service learning is a major
trend in schools where educational objectives are linked to community outreach.
Service learning can provide youth with opportunities to develop leadership and skills in
a wide range of settings.
• Recognize how gender may influence students’ classroom needs. For example, males
may need more tutoring in reading and writing; females may need tutoring in math.
• Be sure to promote physical activity among both males and females. Sports, exercise,
and exploring the outdoors are just as important for healthy brain development as
things that actively engage the mind, such as reading, math, and science.
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