If you ever sense teenagers are not taking your feelings into account, it's probably because they're just incapable of doing so.
The area of the brain associated with higher-level thinking, empathy, and guilt is underused by teenagers, reports a new study. When considering an action, the teenage medial prefrontal cortex, located in front of the brain, doesn't get as much action as adults.
"Thinking strategies change with age," said Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. "As you get older you use more or less the same brain network to make decisions about your actions as you did when you were a teenager, but the crucial difference is that the distribution of that brain activity shifts from the back of the brain (when you are a teenager) to the front (when you are an adult)."
Teen thinking
In the study, teens and adults were asked how they would react to certain situations. As they responded, researchers imaged their brains.
Although both adults and teens responded similarly to the questions, their brain activity differed. The medial prefrontal cortex was much more active in the adults than in the teens. However, the teenagers had much more activity in the superior temporal sulcus, the brain area involved in predicting future actions based on previous ones.
Adults were also much faster at figuring out how their actions would affect themselves and other people.
"We think that a teenager's judgment of what they would do in a given situation is driven by the simple question: 'What would I do?'" Blakemore said. "Adults, on the other hand, ask: 'What would I do, given how I would feel and given how the people around me would feel as a result of my actions?'"
Developing sensitivity
Children start taking into account other people's feelings around the age of five. But the ability develops well beyond this age, the new research suggests.
And while some of this sensitivity could be the result of undeveloped regions in the brain, the experience that adults acquire from social interactions also plays an important role.
"Whatever the reasons, it is clear that teenagers are dealing with, not only massive hormonal shifts, but also substantial neural changes," Blakemore said. "These changes do not happen gradually and steadily between the ages of 0–18. They come on in great spurts and puberty is one of the most dramatic developmental stages."
The results of the study were presented today at the BA Festival of Science in the UK.
I, as a teenager, feel insulted by this study. Therefore, they (the people who published this article, and those who did the study) did not take my feelings into account first. Since they are most certainly adults, this shows they did not display the empathetic properties that the study says they should. Based upon this, the article is flawed.
It is also scientific truth that we are never fully formed neurologically.
But many of its higher functions are finished at around age twenty. From then all future growth is dedicated to keeping tabs on what's been lost through deterioration. Much like the rest of the body, to a point.
New findings show that
the greatest changes to the parts of the brain that are responsible for functions such as
self-control, judgment, emotions, and organization occur between puberty and adulthood. This may help to explain certain teenage behavior that adults can find mystifying,
such as poor decision-making, recklessness, and emotional outbursts.
The brain is still developing during the teen years Dr. Jay Giedd of the NIMH has reported
that brain “maturation does not stop at age 10, but continues into the teen years and
even into the 20’s.
It has been noted that adolescent brain is still growing in certain areas. The region responsible for such things as impulse control and moral judgment is the last to mature. Sometimes this does not take place until the individual reaches the early 20's. This was discovered by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
As repeated above, a lot of your higher functions like impulse control and moral judgement are in a state of construction. Before then it's the rear parts: memory and all that good stuff. But you're not quite hard-wired to make complex "X will cause Y which may lead to Z" judgments.
But also as noted in the previous, this may be hindered if you don't exercise it in the adolescent years. Whether or not you are I'm leaving it to you.
Is this both male and female teens or only one of the two? I have noticed that females are quicker to show empathy than males. I don't see males, teen or adult, show much empathy at all actually.
I, as a teenager, feel insulted by this study. Therefore, they (the people who published this article, and those who did the study) did not take my feelings into account first. Since they are most certainly adults, this shows they did not display the empathetic properties that the study says they should. Based upon this, the article is flawed.
Why would you be insulted? If someone posted an article about the average height of teens being less than that of adults, would you be insulted?
I, as a unique teenager (like every other teenager), am unable to express much intensity of emotion through my actions and words. I also don't really feel bad when old people die, because it was bound to happen. Sorry folks, but it's the truth.
Is this both male and female teens or only one of the two? I have noticed that females are quicker to show empathy than males. I don't see males, teen or adult, show much empathy at all actually.
Could just be that males do feel empathy as much as females, but females are more likely to act based on that.
Why would you be insulted? If someone posted an article about the average height of teens being less than that of adults, would you be insulted?
I posted that as more of a joke than anything. I think there is much truth in the study, but it is extremely generalized. It is like saying (to use your example) "We did a study on 50 adults and 50 teens, and the adults were usually taller. Therefore all teens are shorter than adults."
I, as a teenager, feel insulted by this study. Therefore, they (the people who published this article, and those who did the study) did not take my feelings into account first. Since they are most certainly adults, this shows they did not display the empathetic properties that the study says they should. Based upon this, the article is flawed.
I'm also a teenager, and I'm not insulted by this because they are not saying that teens are all selfish and rude, but it's that we take emotions, generosity, and situations differently because of a simple fact. We are growing and muturing into grown men or women. Our brain doesn't fully develop until about 24, so teens and adults think differently, many times these different thinking minds result into aurguments. I believe this topic is stating that it is not difficult for teens to access the part of the brain that contains empathy. The best us teens can do is to try our best to use empathy when it is the right time, and grow into adults that still use empathy and are kind.
I'm also a teenager, and I'm not insulted by this because they are not saying that teens are all selfish and rude, but it's that we take emotions, generosity, and situations differently because of a simple fact. We are growing and muturing into grown men or women. Our brain doesn't fully develop until about 24, so teens and adults think differently, many times these different thinking minds result into aurguments. I believe this topic is stating that it is not difficult for teens to access the part of the brain that contains empathy. The best us teens can do is to try our best to use empathy when it is the right time, and grow into adults that still use empathy and are kind.
And it's not worth getting all up-tight about anything associated with age because that all wears off. The best one can do after finding this out is keeping it mind. I've had replies elsewhere thanking me for posting this because it assures them that what they feel or do is totally normal. I've also had a comment joking about bringing up this study whenever she gets in a fight with her Mom.
I am a teenager, and I feel more emotions than I care to feel, especially guilt and empathy. This study is wrong, you are stereotyping all teenagers. Say, this isn't another one of these social experiment threads is it?
I am a teenager, and I feel more emotions than I care to feel, especially guilt and empathy. This study is wrong, you are stereotyping all teenagers. Say, this isn't another one of these social experiment threads is it?
My DeviantArt, so sexy
Edit: why the hell did i get a warning for this. i was just stating my opinion
edit again: wtf it wasn't a one word post it was like ten
My DeviantArt, so sexy
It is also scientific truth that we are never fully formed neurologically.
But many of its higher functions are finished at around age twenty. From then all future growth is dedicated to keeping tabs on what's been lost through deterioration. Much like the rest of the body, to a point.
My DeviantArt, so sexy
http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_brain_0502.pdf
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/253786/new_studies_shows_human_brain_reaches_pg2.html?cat=70
As repeated above, a lot of your higher functions like impulse control and moral judgement are in a state of construction. Before then it's the rear parts: memory and all that good stuff. But you're not quite hard-wired to make complex "X will cause Y which may lead to Z" judgments.
But also as noted in the previous, this may be hindered if you don't exercise it in the adolescent years. Whether or not you are I'm leaving it to you.
My DeviantArt, so sexy
Why would you be insulted? If someone posted an article about the average height of teens being less than that of adults, would you be insulted?
Could just be that males do feel empathy as much as females, but females are more likely to act based on that.
I posted that as more of a joke than anything. I think there is much truth in the study, but it is extremely generalized. It is like saying (to use your example) "We did a study on 50 adults and 50 teens, and the adults were usually taller. Therefore all teens are shorter than adults."
I'm also a teenager, and I'm not insulted by this because they are not saying that teens are all selfish and rude, but it's that we take emotions, generosity, and situations differently because of a simple fact. We are growing and muturing into grown men or women. Our brain doesn't fully develop until about 24, so teens and adults think differently, many times these different thinking minds result into aurguments. I believe this topic is stating that it is not difficult for teens to access the part of the brain that contains empathy. The best us teens can do is to try our best to use empathy when it is the right time, and grow into adults that still use empathy and are kind.
And it's not worth getting all up-tight about anything associated with age because that all wears off. The best one can do after finding this out is keeping it mind. I've had replies elsewhere thanking me for posting this because it assures them that what they feel or do is totally normal. I've also had a comment joking about bringing up this study whenever she gets in a fight with her Mom.
It's part of the maturing process.
My DeviantArt, so sexy
Did you read the post right above yours?
Yes, however I actually am offended by the OP in this thread, it is a stereotype towards all teenagers.
People are different.
Just wondering because you pretty much mirrored exactly what he said not to.