And it all lies in your brain – the rate of formation, maturation, and how well you use it.
Dr Sanjay Gupta is the Chief Medical Correspondent at CNN, and anchor of the feature show Vital Minds. In a video, he gives a scientific explanation on why teenagers – whose bodies have been primed by hormones that readies them for sex and reproduction – still remain mentally unsuitable to play these roles.
He explains that at puberty, the adolescent brain which is the same size as when you are age five or six is not fully formed. It may be compared to a half-complete house with only outer insulation, while the inner space remains bare. Our cells have a natural insulation called myelin, which our brains have to build it, and which takes it years.
In fact, the brain is not fully myelinated and mature until the late 20s. Maturation begins at the back of the brain, gradually moving forward to the front part of the brain – the very last part of the brain to be fully connected and functional. This part of the brain is called the frontal cortex – the centre for reason where impulses and mistaken behaviours are controlled.
So, you may be adult looking and fully formed, but your brain is not fully built; even more so, it is flooded with raging hormones that stress a teenager’s coping skills. But that’s not all, even before puberty, a preteen’s brain is growing grey matter in the cortex, the fastest rate since babyhood, and which is where thought and memory are based.
This production gives a preteen’s brain lots of synapses – or neural pathways – to use or lose, which most often are lost as the brain makes itself more efficient by cutting off neural pathways that are not been used or developed.
But if you make use of these pathways: say by learning a musical instrument, a new language, taking up sports, or some other activity that sculpt these pathways; the brain saves these abilities, and strengthen the pathways which in turn make you much better than someone who simply watches television all day, or spends the best part of the day with eyes peeled on a smartphone screen!
In conclusion, how well or badly you behave depends to a large degree on how much of your brain pathways you are using. In this instance, more is actually best!
