I attended a conference called the Brain Institute in Albuquerque, NM. Dr. Baird was one of the keynote speakers. I’ve condensed her information so that it is enjoyable and understandable. Dr. Abigail Baird Ph.D. is a developmental neuroscientist at Vassar College where she is Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Adolescent Studies in the Department of Psychology.

This will be a bit complex, but really is fascinating if you will follow along. So, here we go.

Let’s look at a brief overview of a few areas of the brain & behavior:

1) Amygdala ~ The brain’s “burglar alarm”. It is responsible for the Four F’s

• Feeding
• Fighting
• Fleeing
• and Sex

2) Frontal Cortex ~ “The Conductor” This part of the brain is located at the top, front of our skull and is responsible for orchestrating behavior and problem solving. Just like a music Conductor orchestrates the tempo, slow, soft, loud, who comes in when; this part of the brain orchestrates behavior & problem solving.

3) Insula ~ Is deep inside the brain and is responsible for one trial learning. This is the area of the brain that will retain sense, gut memories of food poisoning for example. If you’ve ever had bad food poisoning even thinking about the event can make you feel sick and chances are good, you’ve avoided that specific food, manner of cooking or restaurant for the rest of your life. Another example is if you stole something as a child and were incapacitated by guilt until you confessed. Even today you can feel that sick feeling. You will have a visceral, gut, sometimes guilt feeling. The insula’s message is “You’ll never do that again!” Now, here’s where it gets fun. Dr. Baird conducted a simple study using adults in one group and teens in another test group. She had the examiners ask one simple question after every example: Is this a good idea or is this a bad idea?

• Is swimming with sharks a good idea or bad idea?
• Is lighting your hair on fire a good idea or bad idea?
• Is jumping off a roof a good idea or bad idea?
• Is getting in a lion cage a good idea or bad idea?
• Is brushing your teeth a good idea or bad idea?
• Is getting enough sleep a good idea or a bad idea?

You have the idea of the line of questioning. Here are the results. Adults answered without hesitation that it was a bad idea on all questions regarding danger. Teens, however, had a significant delay in answering that it was a bad idea on the questions that offered danger. Even though it was only a matter of seconds, it can make the difference in real life between dead and alive!

Additionally, brain scans showed that the teen’s brains showed uncoordinated frontal lobe activity and little to no activity in the amygadala or insula. They had no alarm system!!!

My experience has verified this. I assumed from a spiritual point of view we all had that intuition or gut sense of things. In one of my counseling sessions a 17 year old teen I’ll call Matt (I’ve changed his name) had a “friend” who brought a baggie of drugs to school. The friend asked my client to simply sell the bag full of pills to the students on a list that he provided. My client did just that, got caught and was suspended for the semester to an alternative school.

In family counseling I asked if he had any warning signs, gut reaction, feeling that this could be a mistake. “No, not really. I just figured that my friend knew these people and it was no big deal,” Matt replied. I asked if he thought about being caught. “No, I didn’t think I’d be caught.” I inquired in as many directions as I could for about 5 minutes about any internal warning signs, thought of consequences, feeling this was wrong. Matt still didn’t think it was a big deal and mainly felt bad because he couldn’t go back to his school.

His parents thought they’d raised a child without a conscience. Since I know a few things about brain development, I reassured them that the frontal lobe orchestration would mature (by about 25 for males and 20-23 for females).

So, when is adulthood? From a neuroscience point of view we can say adulthood is when:

• The gut sense of good idea/bad idea, warning, safety is automatic.
• The presence of consistent planning, behavior, follow through, problem solving and coordination of the frontal lobes with other parts of the brain are permanent.

Think about this when you look at the following:

• 16 ~ You Can Drive.
• 17 ~ Age of Consent
• 18 ~ Age of Majority
• 21 ~ Purchase Alcohol
• 25 ~ Rent a Car

Here are a few other random, but interesting facts that Dr. Baird brought to the conference.

• Once girls begin menstruation their brains are flooded with estrogen which makes them both socially & academically smarter then boys their age (better problem solving and better brain coordination).
• Mean Girls - Accelerate their behavior when any attention is given to them, including punishment
• An effective way to handle the Mean Girl situation is to take a group of girls who have been affected by the Mean Girl and offer group social support, breathing techniques, yoga and strategies to handle the situation and awareness of when the Mean Girl targets others. This only is effective if the girls have started their period! Prior to that time, the girls either don’t remember to use the strategies or simply can’t use the strategies.
• If the Mean Girls travel in a group the school must separate them by placing each girl in different classrooms and different lunches.
• Everyone, including adults, face relational aggression i.e. Mean Girls. Learning to control your own feelings and have strategies leads to a sense of personal power.
• The biggest predictor of suicide among girls is loss of friendship: of boys it’s change of school if they fit in well in their current school.
• Seniors in High school have abstract worries that run deep. Some of their reactivity is plain fear and insecurity.
• A lot of bad behavior comes from uncertainty.
• Emotional Affect remains stable across time. If one of your children was cranky, threw a lot of tantrums, yelled and stomped around they’ll do the same as a teen. It’s not that the affect is worse, it’s just they’re bigger, have more words and choice of behaviors. If your child was mellow, cuddly, and let things roll off their back, they’ll have a similar teen temperament.
• Two things we know for sure regarding the brain & school systems: 1) Teach foreign languages early NOT in high school. The brain is receptive in early years and language is learned almost effortlessly when we are young. and 2) Reduce the number of students per class to 15 or less. Emotion drives behavior. If young people don’t feel emotionally connected or believe their teachers care about them; behavior problems increase, focus decreases and learning is more difficult.

Copyright 2007, Iris Fanning. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. www.irisfanning.com Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way and give author name credit and include bookstore link: www.lulu.com/coachiris

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Tags: brain research, divorce, family, mean girls, parenting, realtional aggression, Teens

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