Feelings matter less to teenagers. Teenagers take less account than adults of people’s feelings and, often, even fail to think about their own, according to a UCL neuroscientist. The results, presented at the BA Festival of Science today, show that teenagers hardly use the area of the brain that is involved in thinking about other people’s emotions and thoughts, when considering a course of action.

Many areas of the brain alter dramatically during adolescence. One area in development well beyond the teenage years is the medial prefrontal cortex, a large region at the front of the brain associated with higher-level thinking, empathy, guilt and understanding other people’s motivations. Scientists have now found that, when making decisions about what action to take, the medial prefrontal cortex is under-used by teenagers. Instead, a posterior area of the brain, involved in perceiving and imagining actions, takes over.

Dr. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, giving the BA Festival’s BAYS lecture, said: ” Thinking strategies change with age. As you get older you use more or less the same brain network to make decisions about your actions as you did when you were a teenager, but the crucial difference is that the distribution of that brain activity shifts from the back of the brain (when you are a teenager) to the front (when you are an adult).

” The fact that teenagers underuse the medial pre-frontal cortex when making decisions about what to do, implies that they are less likely to think about how they themselves and how other people will feel as a result of their intended action.

” We think that a teenager’s judgement of what they would do in a given situation is driven by the simple question: ‘What would I do?’. Adults, on the other hand, ask: ‘What would I do, given how I would feel and given how the people around me would feel as a result of my actions?’ The fact that teenagers use a different area of the brain than adults when considering what to do suggests they may think less about the impact of their actions on other people and how they are likely to make other people feel. ”

In the study, teenagers and adults were asked questions about the actions they would take in a given situation while their brains were being scanned using fMRI. For example, ‘You are at the cinema and have trouble seeing the screen. Do you move to another seat?’ A second set of questions asked what they would expect to happen as a result of a natural event eg. ‘A huge tree comes crashing down in a forest. Does it make a loud noise?’

Although teenagers and adults chose similar responses, the medial pre-frontal cortex was significantly more active in adults than in teenagers when questioned about their intended actions. Teenagers, on the other hand, activated the posterior area of the brain known as the superior temporal sulcus an area that’s involved in predicting future actions based on past actions.

While children start to think about other people’s mental states at around age five, this new data shows that the neural basis of this ability continues to develop and mature well past early childhood.

A second piece of research presented at the festival shows that teenagers are also less adept at taking someone else’s perspective and deciding how they would feel in another person’s shoes.

Participants aged eight to 36 years were asked how they would feel and how they would expect someone else to feel in a series of situations. Adults were far quicker than teenagers at judging emotional reactions both how they would feel and how a third party might feel in a given situation. For example, ” How would you feel if you were not allowed to go to your best friend’s party? ” or ‘A girl has just had an argument with her best friend. How does she feel? ”

Dr. Blakemore said: ” It seems that adults might be better at putting themselves in other people’s mental shoes and thinking about the emotional impact of actions but further analysis is required. The relative difficulty that teenagers have could be down to them using a different strategy when trying to understand someone else’s perspective, perhaps because the relevant part of the brain is still developing. The other factor to consider is that adults have had much more social experience.

” Whatever the reasons, it is clear that teenagers are dealing with, not only massive hormonal shifts, but also substantial neural changes. These changes do not happen gradually and steadily between the ages of 0 18. They come on in great spurts and puberty is one of the most dramatic developmental stages.

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    5 replies to "Feelings matter less to teenagers"

    • ddr_pickles

      Very interesting!

    • tmscase

      Thanks! it was a MB Health press release.
      Cian

    • anonymous

      But I remember my childhood, and I think any clinic diagnosis as to the coherence of child, is short sighted and trite.

      Kids, like minorities, are treated as people expect them to be; and in turn, their level of respect reflects these expectations. I firmly believe that the problem is purely psychological, and has nothing to do with limitations based on age, or anything about the physical person.

      No one raises their children anymore; maybe for a year or two as an infant, and then, “bam!” back to work for both parents. Leaving the child to the mercy of bitter and emotionless daycare workers, not to mention *shudder* teachers. I dunno, but I can say that I was very lucky to have a parent at home; who taught me respect, and gave me the personal support I needed to grow as an individual.

      Everyone figures it out eventually though; either the hard way, or progressively via peers and mentors.

      This, like ADD, is merely a byproduct of our emotionless economy, disrespecting people we “assume” should know better.

    • tmscase

      Curtis:
      just replied to your latest post

      Cian:
      oh yeah

      Curtis:
      I am Mr. Anonymous

      Cian:
      k
      yeah they’re saying it is psycological

      Curtis:
      Damn, I knew I should have read the article

      Cian:
      due to inactivities in certain parts of the brain
      hehe

      Curtis:
      Ok, well the cause though, is purely psycological

      Cian:
      it’s psycological – caused by underdevelopment –

      Curtis:
      I disagree
      the cause IS psycological

      Cian:
      on what basis

      Curtis:
      On my reasons in the post
      our economy mostly

      Cian:
      what is the cause – causing the psycological flaw?
      tv eh

      Curtis:
      no
      Lack of parents

      Cian:
      i.e – tv
      same thing

      Curtis:
      or society
      The ends doesn’t jusity the means

      Cian:
      but the root would be teleision

      Curtis:
      *end

      Cian:
      peopel allow it to raise their kids

      Curtis:
      I disagree
      the cause, is people

      Cian:
      then wonder why they’re all assholes

      Curtis:
      exactly
      But who is to blame, the parents?

      Cian:
      because the people they portray on tv are all assholes

      Curtis:
      Society?
      I disagree

      Cian:
      parents

      Curtis:
      the media is not to blame

      Cian:
      my parents never let me watch tv

      Curtis:
      Media merely facilitates the needs of the people

      Cian:
      we actually didn’t have one for quite a while
      media attempts to addict people to it’s product

      Curtis:
      The “real” reason you grew up differenct, is that you HAD attention

      Cian:
      so they will buy their shit

      Curtis:
      You had parents

      Cian:
      yeah I know

      Curtis:
      To tell you better
      To teach you empathy

      Cian:
      to beat the shit outta me

      Curtis:
      and respect
      hehe ie. respect

      Cian:
      yeppers

      Curtis:
      So, once again, the source of the problem…

      Cian:
      ah – but
      they may have something here
      the cause is lack of attention
      the symptom
      perhaps lack of attention leads to lack of use in the area of the brain that
      thinks about how your actions will affect people
      they are merely observing an empirical
      er
      observation
      that that part of the brain is underactive in teenagers
      how ever – as to WHY it’s underactive
      you may have something

    • vladimyr

      The findings above are not a result of psychological conditioning or how the kids are raised, (in response to other posting), but aspects of physical brain development.

      There have been MANY studies into the brain development of adolecents since fMRI’s have been developed into a useable tool for measuring brain activity. There is even a field or research in Brain-Based education that uses information from the studies to refine teaching methodes. It’s like, if a certain part of the brain found to be active during certain tasks, then activities that excersize that part of the brain will make those tasks easier.

      The above article reminds me of a study that Bonnie told me about which shows that there is a period during adolecence that teenagers temporarily loose the ability to plan ahead. So it makes sense the teenagers would not be as good at forseeing the reprecussions of their decissions.

      So, what the article says is that societal influence are not the primary cause of some teenage behavior, but significant changes to the way that brain works are very important.

      Plus, just because you “remember” acting different when you where a teenager, doesn’t mean you remember correctly. Your brain was changing, and it probably skewed your perspective greatly, as it does everyones.

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