Social Cognition in Teenagers

Physical Brain Changes

• According to Dr. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, of the institute of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, in her Spearman Medal lecture, the adult brain has about 100 billion neurons; the infant brain has has nearly as many. However, in the early months of infancy, the brain grows new synapses, or connections between the cells. At about 20 months of age, fewer new synapses are developed, and a sort of pruning takes place, in which unused connections are dropped and connections that are used often are strengthened. A similar process takes place in the frontal cortex -- where decisions about social interactions take place -- during adolescence, or the years spanning ages 11 and 20.

Decision Making in Young Adults

• Blakemore collaborated with Suparna Choudhury and Tony Charman in an August 2006 article called "Social Cognitive Development During Adolescence," published by Oxford University Press. They speculate that this growth of connective material during adolescence accounts for a slower response time when making decisions about personal interactions and a greater degree of impulsiveness when pushed to make quick decisions. They note that adolescents depend a lot on the people around them for a vision of themselves, which leads to susceptibility to peer pressure. As a teen grows older, he gains experience, and a pruning process similar to the one that occurs in toddlers develops, allowing him to make emotional decisions more quickly and accurately.

Need for Guidance

• What this means for parents and teachers of adolescents is that, although the youngsters are capable of doing many things for themselves, they still need a certain amount of guidance. However, the teenagers are also beginning to question your decisions as a parent or educator. Therefore, your role might become one of providing accurate information about a problem or situation rather than being authoritarian. The new pathways sometimes mean increased sensitivity to social nuances that were previously missed. Combine that sensitivity with new awareness of her own sensuality, and you have a kid who one minute is all smiles and happiness, and the next minute has burst into tears over a real or imagined slight.

What This Means

• Psychology of the adolescent, as a study, is still very much in its infancy. Although educators and scientists have been able to observe how teens behaved, there were very few cadavers from this age group, so studies were limited. The introduction of MRIs to this field of study has created an opportunity to observe the physical workings of the brain without invasive surgery or dissection. However, although several studies have been done, the body of information is still too small to make solid conclusions about brains and adolescence.