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What Are The Factors That Affect The Brain Of Teenagers

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Teenagers – how they behave, communicate, and take risks- are, sometimes, grossly misinterpreted. Things have changed over time to affect how teenagers behave. This misunderstanding is not always ubiquitous to young adults of our time. More people need to focus not on what adolescents are thinking, but how they are thinking. Unfortunately, the brain of an average teenager is not, yet, fully developed. Juvenile brains remain under construction until individuals are within their thirties and forties. These findings contradict previous theories that the brain matures much sooner, according to phys.org. The physical reasoning for this theory is based on a part of the brain – the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is what weighs outcomes, forms judgments, as well as controlling emotions. It communicates with different sections of the brain through connections known as synapses, which are similar to wires. Scientists have found that teens experience an immense growth in synapses, but do not finish growing as a teenager. …show more content…

Things that exacerbate the growth may include risky behaviors such as ingesting alcohol, doing drugs, and even teen pregnancy. The abuse of drugs and alcohol causes the loss of brain cell; It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain - they change its structure and how it functions. These brain changes can be long-lasting, and can lead to the harmful behaviors seen in people who abuse drugs. Pregnancy, on the other hand, causes more of an emotional response because of the majority of teen moms – without financial support or a decent education (GED) - focus on more emotional aspects, rather than striving toward having a healthy

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