Are Teenagers really Small Adults?

By: H. Bernard Wechsler
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:26:41
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Up to now we have called it common-sense – the knowledge that teenagers are not quite human. Sure, they look like us, almost speak the same language, but they act more like chimpanzees, great-apes and bonobos.

This not one of those humorous articles with tongue-in-cheek, where we both know the joke and the punch-line.

Yes, there are adults who behave like teenagers – we call them celebrities, and they get highly paid and are not about to shake-the-money-tree.

Emotional Intelligence

This two-word phrase is now a core understanding of literate college graduates, but there is no 100,000-mile warranty that all college graduates are literate.

Let us start with a verified neurological statement:

Teenagers pay a minimum of attention to their own feelings, and less to that of their parents, siblings and peers.

It is science – new-science, but proven, good neuroscience.

When adults communicate with others – adults or teenagers – they activate a part of their brain that is different than the structure used by teenagers.

Empathy, motivation, self-understanding and imagining how other people will feel and respond – are adult brain functions, absent in guess who?

Science

Adults trigger their Prefrontal Cortex – specifically the medial area – to awaken their Emotional Intelligence – both inter and intra-active comprehension. How do we know?

MRI scanning of the brains of volunteers.

Where?

One of the most prestigious cognitive neuroscience research centers – UCL – University College – London.

Who?

Dr. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore – senior researcher. The research was delivered in September, ’06 at the BA Festival of Science.

Conclusions: Teenagers cannot think, act and feel like adults. Get over it.

a) She found that teenagers trigger a different part of their brain

when they interact with others – even when trying to figure out

their own feelings.

b) It is called the Superior Temporal Sulcus – located in

the posterior of their brain, and functions to predict the future without

a crystal ball, based on past experience.

c) Be aware teenagers have a Prefrontal Cortex, but it is dormant or focused on video game playing. The adult Prefrontal Cortex of reasoning, planning and empathy - is an alien from another galaxy.

Guess which brain structure runs Emotional Intelligence?

When it Happens

Teenagers become human beans in a Quantum Leap, not incrementally. It is like a Tsunami struck them down. At about age 19 to 21 it emerges, and you ask, - Who are you – and who kidnapped my jerky kid? During puberty there is no Emotional Intel, and suddenly childhood passes, and they got empathy. Deal with the time-lapse photography of it.

Pleasure and Pain

- Death is nothing to us – since when we are – Death has not come, and when Death has come – we are not. - Maybe you are not happy with this heartless remark – it is by Epicurus, the Greek who loved the refined, luxurious things in life.

He ran around Athens 341-270 C.B.E, and what he espoused then, resonates today; it is comforting that what Epi figured it out still rules.

Back to science – humans fundamentally operate like a two-track railroad – pleasure and pain. Do we stop, take a pen and do a Franklin Close to decide if what we do brings us pleasure or pain?

Yes – but it happens in a millisecond, activating our right-brain and its pattern- recognition skill. We can instantly activate our mental files of positive and negative experiences and draw a reasonable inference.

VTA

In our brain is the Ventral Tegmental Area which activates neuronal activity in our Limbic-System –our emotional center. Here our brain passes messages from one neuron-to-another, creating a neural-network called the Nucleus Accumbens.

This brain structure causes production of Dopamine (neurotransmitter), in the frontal cortex, and causes – pleasure.

So who cares?

We are programmed (hardwired), to seek out Pleasure and avoid Pain – that is our physiological purpose in life. What gives you pleasure is your business – but you know it when you feel it, and spend your life in a search-and-repeat mode.

Pain is based on perceptions located in our Cingulate Cortex – again you know it when you feel it – and have strategies to avoid it. There is one interesting point that confirms common-sense – focusing your attention on pain – increases its level, and distraction deceases pain perception.

See: Sean MacKey, Stanford University, published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. He used MRI scanning to validate his conclusions.

Endwords

We produce nurotransmitters and neuropeptides that act like opium – in fact they are called Opioids. Endorphins flood our painful area to help us survive.

Recent research indicates that the Placebo Effect is real, not a result of mumbo-jumbo or the power of suggestion. For the past century, the AMA has offered no respect for Placebos, even though the Federal Drug Administration maintains that up to 33% of healing is based on it.

The Mu Opioid Receptor is activated, as seen on a MRI scan, when we experience the Placebo (self-healing) Effect. It is not imagination that creates the cure; it is an area of the brain. It deserves as much respect as popping pills or surgery.

See ya,

copyright © 2006
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org
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