User:Stringerchr/The Teenage Brain and Risk Taking

Summary

Teenagers (ages 10-25) have been misunderstood for years. Their inconsistent behavior is often associated with “idiocy” and “impulsiveness”. However their behavior is explainable by hormonal imbalance, a rapidly growing body, and the regions of their brain that are still developing. Teenagers take risks because the connection between brain regions which contributes to how the brain makes decisions is still developing . A distinctive part of the teenage behavior, the reckless risk taking, is actually a vital part of self discovery and the shaping of society.

Biology of the Brain

Definition of the Brain

The brain is the decision making organ of the body. There are two types of brain behavior “reward seeking” and “impulse inhibition.” Reward seeking is the ability to weigh the prize or what one can obtain over the consequences. Impulse inhibition is the ability to suppress desires. Different regions of the brain have different operations and have different receptors for hormones. A hormone is a regulatory substance produced in an organism and stimulates specific cells or tissues into action.

Definition of Adolescence

For the purpose of this article, it has to be established that there is a difference between an adolescent and an adult. In Western civilization, adults and children have vastly different responsibilities. Some cultures and social arrangements do not recognize a definitive transformation before and after puberty. In biology, an adolescent is someone between the ages of 10 and 25 because this marks a period when the brain is still maturing. The terms “teenager” and “adolescent” are used interchangeably throughout this article as a way of identifying the ages where the brain is not fully developed. “Teenager” will specifically be used when speaking about the distinctive risk taking behavior that is seen during the teenage years of 12 to 17.

Teenage Brains’ Regions

As we get older, the regions of our brain that link memory and experience into decision making, get stronger. Our problem solving and decision making improves because the frontal areas allow us “to generate and weigh far more variables and agendas” than before. Since a teenager’s brain is still developing, these previously mentioned regions are still meshing. This explains teenagers’ inconsistent behavior and their ability to fluctuate between rational and irresponsible decisions.

Risk Taking

Hormones Behind Risk Taking

During the adolescent years, the development of the reward regions of the brain and the regions responsible for rational consideration and judgment become disconnected due to puberty. One of the responsible regions is the ventral striatum is a brain module (area of the brain) that is active when a person receives or expects an award. Adolescents are extremely reactive to awards because within this brain region, their bodies produce an abundance of the gonadal hormones, which makes them more desirable of rewards. Teenagers take more risks than adults because this area of their brain is more stimulated.

Importance of Social Rewards

The importance of social rewards is reflective in the teenager’s hormones. Oxytocin is a brain hormone teens have an abundance of which makes social connections rewarding. Therefore risk taking in teens is induced by social reward. Another hormone that is relevant to social rewards is testosterone. Puberty in boys is marked by an increase in testosterone levels. Testosterone is in abundance when the ventral striatum becomes activated “after high-risk gambles.” In this section of development, the “pubertal testosterone is a strong prediction of status-relevant motivation and behavior”. This means that the teenage body responds aggressively to social reward. Only when a teenager is within a social environment where their social status is “threatened”, do researchers see the aggressive effect derived from testosterone. An example of this can be seen in a teenager’s driving environment. When a teenager drives alone, they follow the speed limit. But when they are with friends, they speed and put themselves in danger so they will not be seen as cowardly. Similarly, within the teenage female body, when estradiol levels raise females experience weakened inhibition which lead to heightened risk taking. Female teenagers too would speed when with friends because the danger does not outweigh the reward of maintaining social status.

How Teenagers Respond to Stress

A teenager can find a threat to their social status stress inducing. Stress can come from actions such as: failing test which could decrease their class rank, missing soccer practice which could cause them to lose their starting lineup spot in the next game. Two hormonal systems are activated when an individual experiences a stressor. One releases hormones into the blood stream and activates an immediate response known as “fight or flight”. The second releases a prolonged response caused by HPA. The HPA is responsible for the physiological and behavioral responses to stress. What the brain releases at this time is responsible for “increasing learning and memory abilities.” But prolonged exposure to these hormones can cause short and long term implications and an individual’s behavior and physiology.
In an experiment conducted on adolescent and adult rats, scientists found that hormonal stress responses lasted 45 to 60 minutes longer in adolescent rats compared to adult rats. This could explain why a teenager’s brain is especially “vulnerable” to anxiety or psychological disease. Romeo stated “Adolescence is marked by significant shifts in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity, resulting in heightened stress-induced hormonal responses”. So, in comparison to an adult’s brain, the reversibility of chronic stress effects is acutely different. A teenager’s brain can still suffer structural and functional shifts up to a month after healing. Therefore stress exists longer within the brain of a teenager compared to the brain of the adult.

How Culture Influences Teenagers’ Risk Taking

Young people in our culture are expected to leave and experience the world for themselves and find financial independence. This is explicitly explained by Sercombe’s main idea, “Symbolic acts of extension send a message to peers and/or dominant adults in their lives as the individual is now, or in the process of becoming, their own person”. Teenagers are expected to fulfill the fundamental need to “become an actor in one’s life instead of a spectator.” He argues that “teenagers are agency-machines and younger children are learning-machines”. Teenagers must find their own way to a community outside of their parents’ institution. The seemingly negative behaviors of teenagers, such as secrecy, impulsiveness, resistance, subversion, and deception, are unavoidable because power over one’s self is never given but fought for. These attributes of rebellious behavior are not associated with “peer pressure” but instead the search for an identity.

“Love of the Thrill”- A Chase Towards Risk Taking

Adolescents crave “new and exciting” things. They are “sensation seeking” which is not based on impulsiveness but instead, the hunt for the neural buzz, meaning the jolt of the unusual or unexpected. This explains why teens are the highest age group killed in all accidents except those that are work related and why long term drug use usually begins during adolescence. Contrary to popular belief, teenagers fully understand they are mortal. They “overestimate risk” like adults but they weigh risk and reward differently. As previously mentioned, teenagers strongly respond to social reward and possible threats to social status. They do not give consequences an appropriate weight. Some examples of this “irresponsibility” are participating in unprotected sex or playing a football game on an already injured ankle. Teenagers can only see the immediate satisfaction and not the repercussions of their actions.

The Impact of Risk Taking

Teenagers risk taking has negative and positive effects on their lives and society. The positive effects are monumental. In history, it is always young people who chauvinistically volunteer to serve in wars. Their desire to stray from home allows them to meet people with similar views. They can start a revolution against an oppressive government like college kids in the 1960’s and 1970’s protested the Vietnam War. Change is often driven by young people as teenagers are given the opportunity to explore the world and test their values. Their values can begin to conflict with their parents’ beliefs but that is important because they are adapting to the modern world and forming their own perspective. By reaching out to their peers instead of their parents, they are “investing in the future.” They want to obtain their own knowledge and then find value in their parents’ experiences, instead of a parent’s authority. Their parents’ outlooks on life and morals may be irrelevant in today’s world. The negative effects of risk taking are destructive to adolescence’s future and health. Engaging in drugs or unprotected sex can lead to addiction or teenage pregnancy, stifling identity growth, health, and safety.

Conclusion

Risk taking is directly correlated to teenager’s brain development as their brains are still growing. They value rewards more than consequences and begin acting rebellious not because of peer pressure but because they are on a quest for identity.