Diagram of the brain and prefrontal cortex (red), the region of the brain responsible for logical reasoning and emotion & impulse control
Photo By The Science of Psychotherapy
During adolescence, teenagers experience major physical, hormonal, and social development. The brain, especially, experiences significant changes, making it heavily vulnerable to substance abuse. To fully understand how the brain develops during adolecence, let's travel back to the beginning of the maturation process.
Throughout childhood, the brain will generate an abundance of connections between neurons - this is to ensure that the brain will be functional. However, between ages 11 and 12, many unnecessary connections will be clear out, leaving space for only commonly activated neurons - such as those involved in eating or doing homework and those needed for complex decision making later on in life - to multiply. This process known as pruning is initiated at the back of the brain and slowly migrates to the front of the brain. This phenomenon explains why teenagers tend to take more risks and act irrationally compared to adults, since the prefrontal cortex, an anterior (frontal) section of the brain responsible for logical reasoning and emotion & impulse control matures last. On the other hand, the adult brain is fully developed; unneeded neurons are cleared out and all regions across the brain including the prefrontal cortex have matured. Hence, adults will generally act less impulsively and more logically especially in high stress situations compared to adolecents.
From an evolutionary standpoint, the risk-taking nature of adolecence is necessary for determining what behaviors improve the likelihood of survival, and what do not. Additionally, research suggests that risky behavior is neccesary to the pruning process, as adolecents must explore and train their brains to adapt to their surrounding environment as they become more independent.
Unfortunately, the risk-taking nature of adolecents is arguably the biggest contributing factor to the current issue of teenage substance abuse. Since the prefrontal cortex develops the latest, adolecents are more susceptible to peer pressure leading to the consumption of drugs. Additionally, in an experiment conducted on lab rats, the motor function of adolecent rats were observed to be less impacted than that of adult rats after consuming alcohol. This diminished sensitivity to substances within adolecents likely increases the quantity of drug consumption, consequently increasing the likelihood of abuse. This is a serious issue which has remained an area of focus for several decades.
A Graph Comparing Rates of Alcohol Dependence (Percent) and Different Age Groups; earlier use is correlated with higher rates of dependence
Photo By the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Vocabulary
Neuron: a cell that relays electrical signals across the brain; this controls our body function
Prefrontal cortex: a region of the brain located behind the forehead responsible for logical reasoning and emotion & impulse control
Dependence: continued use of a substance even when issues caused by substance use have emerged
References
Arain, Mariam et al. “Maturation of the adolescent brain.”
Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment vol. 9 (2013): 449-61. doi:10.2147/NDT.S39776
Lipoff, Sarah. “Peer Pressure and the Young Adult’s Brain.”
Funderstanding, 26 Apr. 2011, www.funderstanding.com/theory/child-development/peer-pressure-and-the-young-adults-brain.
“Prefrontal Cortex.” thescienceofpsychotherapy.com, 4 Jan. 2017,
www.thescienceofpsychotherapy.com/prefrontal-cortex.
“Substance Use Disorder.” Johns Hopkins Medicine,
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/substance-abuse-chemical-dependency.
Winters, Ken C, and Amelia Arria. “Adolescent Brain Development
and Drugs.” The prevention researcher vol. 18,2 (2011): 21-24.
Disclaimer: This information is intended for educational use only, and should not be construed as professional advice.