Article Review The Teenage Brain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Article Review The Teenage Brain - Essay Example Casey. Ben Luna stated that an adolescent brain acts like an adult brain by overusing the frontal lobe. The onset of adulthood is associated with the integration of frontal lobes with other areas of the brain and myelination is just part of the process. Meanwhile, the US National Institute for Mental Health argue with the studies stating that brain size, folding, and regional specialization started at age 12; instead, the institute indicate that an adolescent brain has a long way to reach the adulthood. Jay Giedd of the National Institute for Mental Health found out that grey mater thickens in childhood and thins from back to front during the early adulthood. This process completes early in girls and Giedd explained that it was probably the reason why girls mature early than boys. Giedd thought that the thinning of the grey mater is due to the synaptic pruning and that more environmental guidance will be better for the adolescent’s behavior. Elizabeth Sowell warns other researchers like Giedd against making direct connections between brain changes and specific teen behaviors as there are no supportive data to prove the assumptions. Tomà ¡Ã… ¡ Paus agree with Sowell in not treating brain-behavior relationship as a one-way street but also agree with Giedd that brain maturity continues beyond the first 3-5 years of life. George Bartzokis stated that as grey mater thins, the white mater gains with layers of insulating myelin with the maximum myelination responsible for the wisdom an adult has. Abigail Baird and Greg Bennett relate gained of white mater to the ability to empathize and B.J. Casey that the amount of reward distinguish the strong nucleus reaction of the brain seen among children or adolescents (Powell, 2006, 865-867). The article describes the parts of nervous system such as the brain –thefrontal lobes, brain cells, white mater, grey mater, myelin