the adolescent brain

​interesting article on adolescents in the new york times (see http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/why-teenagers-act-crazy.html?ref=todayspaper ). will review briefly:
    --adolescent brain functions differently from adult brain
        --the amygdala is highly developed (which governs the fear response)
        --the prefrontal cortex is pretty underdeveloped (which provides reasoning and executive function), and remains so til the early-to-mid 20's
        --the reward center is very developed
--Implications
        --with the highly developed reward center, teens tend to take lots of risks (the chase for rewards)
        --but this is the time for increased issues around fears and anxiety (the amygdala issue) -- often the age when anxiety disorders​ develop. teens have heightened fear responses, and in experiments tend not to extinguish these responses as easily as adults (ie, after repeated exposure). this raises issues, for example, of teens going to war and susceptibility to PTSD, and increased difficulty dealing with it
        --teens seem to be less responsive to cognitive behavioral therapy (given decreased reasoning ability)
        --some concern expressed about the exploding use of stimulants (ritalin, et al).  ??if this is a good thing for people more predisposed to anxiety issues ???predispose them to more PTSD if exposed to trauma (these issues are interesting, but there are NO data)

this goes along with other issues (not in article), such as that functional MRI shows that adolescents process purely analytical problems (eg math) in their limbic system (emotional area), whereas adults process the same problems in their prefrontal cortex.  all of this raises issues about the appropriateness that our society expects adolescents to routinely make extremely important and far-reaching decisions about their lives (and the effect on others) -- eg about their futures (work, college, military service, family) as well as risk-taking (cars, drugs, alcohol, smoking)...

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