Status Updates From The Teenage Brain: A Neuros...

The negative side effects of Ecstasy are considerable—confusion, agitation, irregular heartbeat, seizures, sleep disorders, liver and brain damage, and of course death

This is not minor or incidental. These brain regions are used every day for basic cognitive tasks, whether it’s abstract thinking, the ability to change one’s behavior in relation to changing demands in the environment, or the inhibition of inappropriate responses.

Adolescent brains are not as resilient as adult brains when it comes to marijuana. Teenagers are especially vulnerable to the drug because they are at a critical stage in the development of two of the most sophisticated part of their brains—the frontal and prefrontal cortex—and these are precisely the parts most affected by marijuana.

A study done in Great Britain found evidence to support the conclusion that cannabis use was an important causal factor in the development of schizophrenia and that smoking marijuana doubles the risk of psychosis.

Marijuana use has also been observed to inhibit functioning in the areas of the cortex that play a critical role in recognizing errors, specifically insight into one’s own thoughts and behavior. Neurologists and neuroscientists have associated the inability to detect errors with several psychopathologies, including the psychotic delusions of schizophrenia

There are more problems with the amygdala the day after smoking pot, too. Having already been overstimulated by THC, the amygdala now has fewer cannabinoid receptor sites; this means it takes more than the normal amount of stimulation to get the brain interested in learning something new. How to do it? By smoking more pot, of course.

The pyramidal cells specifically help the hippocampus send autobiographical memories—memories of our experiences—into long-term storage. Alcohol blocks the ability of these hippocampal pyramidal cells to do their job, preventing the brain from forming autobiographical memories

Alcohol has been shown to affect the size and efficiency of the prefrontal cortex, the site of executive functioning, as well as the hippocampus, so vital to learning and memory. In fact, researchers have shown a direct correlation between hippocampal volume and the age of onset of alcohol abuse. The earlier the use—and the longer the abuse—the smaller thehippocampus

A group of researchers at Duke showed that in rats, nicotine exposure during adolescence damaged the pathways producing serotonin in the brain. As a result, there was less serotonin, and as serotonin deficiency is one of the leading mechanisms of depression, that may explain why depression is more frequent in people who have been heavy smokers as teens

Astonishingly, the Florida State researchers found that even a single day of smoking cigarettes in adolescence can be enough to trigger a depression-like state later in adulthood.

One of the surprising things I’ve learned about sleep deprivation and teenagers is that it can lead to increased cigarette use. More surprisingly still, I learned that cigarette smoking can cause a variety of cognitive and behavioral problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and memory loss, and it has been associated with lower IQ in teenagers.