the adolescent brain: what’s going on in there? october 12, 2012 nebraska association for middle...
TRANSCRIPT
The Adolescent Brain: What’s Going on in There?
October 12, 2012
Nebraska Association for Middle Level
Education
Google Images
30 seconds: Fill the box with words to describe adolescents.
ZITS by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman
ZITS by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman
How the Brain Works
Tan’s Brain
How do we know what we know about the adolescent brain?
Dr. Jay GieddPhineas Gage
These two men have played key
roles…
http://www.interscoop.com/media/phine.jpg http://www.nih.gov/nihrecord/08_12_2005/images/teenbrain.jpg
Google image source: http://www.sruweb.com/~walsh/gage1.jpg
Phineas Gage
Image source: Smithsonian magazine, January 2010
Google image source: http://www.brown.edu/Research/Memlab/py47/diagrams/phineas.jpg
Phineas Gage: September 1848 Age 26
Died: 1861
Before the accident…
After the accident…
Hard-working Respected Personable
Efficient Effective Responsible
Unreliable Irrational Impulsive
Disagreeable Difficult to get along with
Overly emotional Indecisive
Foul-mouthed Anti-social Irresponsible
•Plan for the future•Make decisions
•Control impulses•Assess risk•Set goals & priorities
•Make sound judgments
•Reason
•Plan & organize multiple tasks
•Control emotions
The Frontal Lobes
What could the story of Phineas Gage possibly have to do with the adolescent brain?
Image source: Smithsonian magazine, January 2010
Dr. Jay Giedd
•PET Scan
•CT Scan
•MRI
•fMRI
•DTIGoogle image source: http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/OZARKS2001/37_schizo_pmaps_loss.jpg
Brain Imaging Technologies
A thickening of the brain’s gray
matter… caused by an
overproduction of connections
between neurons
Exuberance… Pruning…
Google image source: http://www.brainexplorer.org/brain-images/graymatter.jpg
A systematic pruning away
of unused connections… between
neurons
Myelination…
…the developmental process in which neurons are coated with a fatty, waxy substance… that insulates and speeds signals as they pass through one brain cell and on to another…
Myelin sheath
•Plan for the future•Make decisions
•Control impulses•Assess risk•Set goals & priorities
•Make sound judgments
•Reason
•Plan & organize multiple tasks
•Control emotions
The Frontal Lobes
is the act of making and strengthening connections between neurons…
LEARNING…
…and adolescence is a critical window of opportunity for this “sculpting” of brains!
The brains of adolescents are fundamentally different from the brains of children and of adults.
Exuberance Pruning
Myelination
Sleep: Many adolescents…
• struggle to get up in the morning
• claim they’re not tired at bedtime
• sleep late & nap on weekends
• go to school each day in a “fog”
• struggle to concentrate in early morning classes
• have difficulty remembering the content in early classes
• feel drowsy & irritable by mid-afternoon
So… Just how much sleep do adolescents need?
Permission granted: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2011 www.sleepeducation.com
9-10 hours
What do we know about adolescent sleep patterns?
• They are regulated by “circadian rhythms.” (the brain’s natural “body clock”)
• They differ from those of younger children and those of adults.
• The circadian rhythms of adolescents “program” them to stay awake later into the night, and to wake-up later into the morning.
Microsoft Office Clip Art, 2011
Why does this matter?Without adequate sleep, adolescents…
• have a more difficult time holding a focus on the task at hand (class activities & lessons)
• have more difficulty in thinking creatively and solving problems
• are more prone to errors
• are more irritable; less patient
• may be more impulsive
• engage in more risky behaviors
Why does this matter?Without adequate sleep, adolescents…
iCLIPART for Schools, 2011
• miss out on the consolidation of learning that takes place during sleep
CONSOLIDATION: a complex brain process that occurs during specific phases of sleep (REM Sleep- Rapid Eye Movement); the continued processing of information and experiences that occurred throughout the day, while the body and brain are asleep; processing that facilitates the transfer of short term memories- into the long term memory system within the brain, allowing for retrieval later on
Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction
Brain’s Natural Reward CenterVTA, Dopamine
Research suggests that adolescents…
• become addicted more strongly…
• have a more difficult time quitting…
• are more susceptible to “drug-cue associations”…
• are more susceptible to relapse, once they have quit…
What about multitasking?• The Cocktail Party Effect
• Toggling (task-switching)
• Quality decreases on both (or all) tasks attempted
• Time to complete tasks increases when attempting to multitask
• Paying “continuous partial attention”
• In some situations, multitasking is dangerous!
Risk-Taking: Adolescents…•are “hard-wired to take risks (as are all humans)
•are highly sensitive to rewards associated with risk
• tend to be more impulsive than most adults
•weigh the benefits more heavily than the risks
•often overestimate the risk in a given situation
•often think too rationally when it comes to risk
Fundamental Differences• Multi-tasking (?)
•Exposure to violence… media & video games
•Screen-time…
• Immediacy- fast-paced world- constant connectivity, social-networking- reduced face-to-face communication
What IS going on inside the adolescent brain?
the better able we’ll be to understand our students, and to design learning opportunities that meet the needs of their still-developing brains.
And the more knowledgeable educators become…
ExuberancePruning
Myelination
Circadian Rhythms
Effects of technology
Dopamine
Hyper-sensitivity to rewardsPhase Delay
Effects of violence in media
Emotional System
Autonomy
