读书笔记：The teenage brain 刘昕
anonymous-104090 09/29 28834.0/1
The Teenage Brain, a New York Times Bestseller, is authored by Frances E. Jensen. Dr. Jensen is the chair of the Department of Neurology at UPenn and a mother of two boys. As a mother, professor, researcher, and clinician, she offers her scientific expertise on the workings of the teenage brain and her anecdotal advice on parenting teenagers.
My motivation for reading the work was pragmatic: having a teenager and a preteen at home, I hope to better understand and parent them. So before diving into the details of the book, here are the book’s most pragmatic lessons.
Teens are better learners than adults because their brain cells build neural connections more readily. Therefore, on the one hand, the teenage years offer tremendous growth opportunities. During these years, the IQ of ⅓ of kids increases, ⅓ decreases, and ⅓ remains the same.
On the other hand, because of the ease of building neural connections, compared to adult brains, teen brains are much more susceptible to addiction, be it drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, or electronics. In fact, although not stated in the book, I think the younger the brain, the more susceptible it is to addiction.
Multi-tasking is highly destructive. It significantly impedes memory and diminishes efficiency. The brain takes pleasure in multi-tasking, which is why people tend to do it. Multitasking is also addictive, leading to habitually short attention.
The prefrontal cortex matures the last, in the at the age of early twenties. That explains why teens tend to be more emotional, be more risks-seeking, as well as show less self-control and poor judgement.
Sleep is crucial for very important in brain development. Neural connections strengthens during sleep. In other words, sleep strengthens what we learn during the day. How wonderful!
The ability to assess consequences of actions is weak during the teenage years because the frontal lobe has yet to mature. Therefore, repetition is important on a few key really important lessons issues, such as the danger of addiction.
In the mid-teen years, girls’ brains are on average two years more mature than those of boys in mid-teens.
A few thoughts and questions remain after reading the book:
It is a mistake to exaggerate the effect of teenage hormonal changes, as some other books do. For example, I remember reading a couple of books with a basic theme that teenagers are crazy and parents should tolerate it. I was more confused after reading such books. During the teenage years, the basic principles still rule. Being a teenager is not an excuse to be irresponsible. Yet, teenage brains do not have fully developed frontal lobes and they need assistance in making judgements. So parents should consistently use positive reinforcement to remind them and help them grow.
According to the book Brainstorm by Daniel Siegel, adolescence teenage years is one of the most creative periods of life. Take full advantage of that.
On the one hand, I definitely agree with the importance of sleep. On the other hand, I am puzzled by what I see in real life. Many teens have extremely busy schedules and they seem to be doing really well. Could the human body adapt to sleep less or sleep more efficiently to a certain degree?
The book starts with an overview on brain structures relevant to cognitive and emotional functions, brain development, the functionality of each component, and the learning process. Brain development is a process of both “pruning”, where excess neurons are selectively cut back to provide space, and “myelination” where neurons are coated with a fatty sheath for faster and stronger connections. These development start from the back, more primitive portions of the brain, and work forward toward the more advanced executive parts of the brain. The frontal lobe is the last to be fully developed, and thus the lesser ability of teens to process emotions, control impulses, and make cognitive decisions.
Contrary to earlier believes, teenage brains are plastic - pruning and myelination are indications of plasticity. Therefore, teenage years is a significant period of brain development. Teens learn faster than adults. On the other hand, it also means that negative experience during these years are more likely to be encoded in the brain and lead to lifelong emotional and relational problems.
The next two chapters of the book talk about sleep and taking risks. In particular, the reward centers in teen brains are wired to respond more intensely to potential rewards (such as peer approval) than adult brains, and thus making risk-assessment more difficult.
The following several chapters talk about the harmful impact of tobacco, alcohol, pot, hard-core drugs, stress, and mental illness on the brain, and why teens are much more susceptible to their influence than adults.
Chpt. 13 discusses the digital invasion, followed by gender, concussions, crime. The final chapter discusses the challenges beyond adolescence.
雷春 wrote a much more detailed digest：http://www.....com/article/view/bg88u .
