Teen brain wired differently
November 19th 2009 22:27
U.S. researchers say magnetic resonance imaging scans in mice show teen brains do differ from adult brains.
Senior author Alexei Morozov of the National Institute of Mental Health said it may be of no surprise to human parents that one of the areas where the juvenile mouse brain structurally differs from the adult mouse brain is in the area having to do with emotions.
"Our work on the amygdala revealed that the neuronal pathways that carry sensory information to the amygdala directly, bypassing cortex, are more plastic in the juvenile than in adult mice," Morozov says in a statement.
Dr. John Krystal said the scientists found the amygdala -- the major emotional center in the brain is very much more plastic and undergoing structural reorganization during the adolescent years -- probably as the brain is in the process of switching control to the cortex -- the outer layer of gray matter largely responsible for higher brain functions including thought and reasoning.
The researchers found the juvenile brain sometimes bypassed the cortex completely.
"Emotional behaviors in adolescence are less precise and more irrational because they are driven more by subcortical than by cortical structures," Morozov says in a statement.
The findings are published in Biological Psychiatry.
From UPI.com
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