Adolescent development cont.
– Withdrawal from friends, family, and school can delay social development. – Eating disorders associated with dramatic weight loss can interrupt menstruation. Despite these risks it is important to remember that most young people do pass through adolescence with relatively little difficulty. Brain development The capacity of a person to learn will never be greater than during adolescence. In terms of intellectual power the brain of an adolescent is a match for an adult, however tests suggest differences in how adolescents and adults carry out mental tasks. A clue to the degree of change taking place in the adolescent brain comes from studies in which scans of children were taken as they grew from early childhood through to their mid-twenties. Findings revealed long-held assumptions about the timing of brain maturation were incorrect and that the brain doesn’t reach maturity until around the mid-twenties (14). The pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for planning, problem-solving, decision-making, personality development, and impulsivity, is one of the last brain areas to fully develop (15). Grey matter Grey matter is made up of the nerve cell bodies, the nerve fibres that project from them, and blood vessels. One of the features of the brain’s growth in early life is the blooming of synapses, which are the connections between brain cells. Synapses are the links by which brain cells communicate with each other and are the basis of the working circuitry of the brain. At birth our synapses are more numerous than when we
Page 46
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker