The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults

This term describes the capacity of the brain to be molded by information and experiences. Teenagers display a high degree of brain plasticity, making adolescence an optimal time for learning. However, Jensen also explains that neuroplasticity makes teenagers more vulnerable to addiction, and hence is an important component of her theme of Supporting Healthy Brain Development During Adolescence.

As a brain chemical and a hormone, dopamine is central to the brain’s reward circuitry. Humans release dopamine when anticipating a pleasurable experience. Jensen explains that the sense of reward teenagers feel when dopamine is released is greater than that experienced by adults. As a result, adolescents are more likely to seek out new experiences and exhibit risky behavior in order to feel a dopamine “rush.”

The frontal lobes are responsible for executive functions such as reasoning, organizing, and impulse control and are the last part of the brain to fully develop. This is a crucial premise in The Teenage Brain. Jensen argues that the immaturity of teenagers’ frontal lobes and the relative lack of connections with the rest of the brain lie at the heart of much adolescent behavior. Teenagers’ deficit in executive functioning means that they have less self-control and are less able to assess the consequences of their actions. The author suggests that parents need to stand in for their teenagers’ frontal lobes until they are fully developed.

As part of the limbic system, the hippocampus plays a key role in learning, as well as storing and retrieving memories. In The Teenage Brain, Jensen describes how the functioning of the hippocampus can be impaired by factors such as stress and alcohol use.

The limbic system contains several brain structures and is responsible for emotion, memory, and motivation. Jensen explains that the limbic system is more dominant in teenagers than adults, making them more impulsive and emotional.

Myelin is fatty white matter that insulates the axons of neurons in the brain. Its growth allows signals to travel more quickly from one part of the brain to another. Jensen explains that, in adolescents, the process of myelination is not yet complete. Consequently, teenagers’ neural signals are less efficient.

Neurons are the cells that make up the building blocks of the brain. Jensen explains that, through communicating with one another, neurons are responsible for all human functioning, from thoughts and emotions to bodily functions.

This term describes the junction where one neuron passes a message to another. As synapses are created during learning, adolescence is a period of rapid synaptic growth. The more they are used, the stronger they become. However, Jensen explains that new synapses are also created in response to substances such as alcohol and drugs, making teenagers more vulnerable to addiction. Adolescents have more excitatory than inhibitory synapses, meaning that they crave new sensations and have less impulse control than adults.