Nimitha > Recent Status Updates

Of all the countries in the world, the only two not to have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a binding international treaty outlawing the sentencing of juveniles to life in prison without parole, are Somalia and the United States.

As of today the distinction goes to USA alone.

What scientists do know is that the brain, at any time in its life but especially during adolescence, is a product of both nature and nurture, including all the exposures, stresses, and stimulations of a person’s environment.

The differences do raise some questions as to whether in certain circumstances we should consider some gender-based high school curricula. Given the couple of years’ disparity between peak cortical volume in girls versus boys, one might predict that girls, who reach specific levels of cognitive development before boys, could benefit more from math and science courses at earlier ages.

“This is worrisome,” Dr. Wang of Ohio State told the media, “because students begin to feel like they need to have the TV on or they need to continually check their text messages or computer while they do their homework. It’s not helping them, but they get an emotional reward that keeps them doing it.

“They felt satisfied not because they were effective at studying, but because the addition of TV made the studying entertaining. The combination of the activities accounts for the good feelings obtained.”

First, the gamers group scored much higher on tests for risk-taking. Next, functional MRI showed less connectivity to the gamers’ frontal lobes, but more connectivity in areas that have been observed in nicotine addiction,

A study published in China in 2012 looked at seventeen adolescents who met the definition of gaming addiction and compared their brain scans with those of twenty-four nongamers of similar gender, age, and educational level.

The compulsive need 2be digitally connected happens on 2 levels,behaviorally&biochemically. Every ring,ping,beep& burst of song fr a smartphone results in an “Oh, wow” moment in the brain. When the new text message/post is opened,the discovery is like a digital gift; it releases a pleasurable rush of dopamine in the brain. There is mounting evidence that Internet addiction has much in common with substance addiction.

The cascade of neuroprocesses that kicks off the brain’s reward circuitry and the rush of the pleasure chemical dopamine can be triggered just as easily by the release of the latest iPhone as by alcohol, pot, sex, or a fast car. In some ways, technology is a drug.

being addicted to the Internet involves the same reward center as drugs

The difference between those with ordinary teenage angst and those with bona fide anxiety disorders is one not of content but of degree.

Researchers have found that clinical depression seems to emerge from a gradual dysregulation of the HPA axis from childhood into adolescence caused by a greater-than-normal release of cortisol in the brain

While stress is one of the main risk factors for schizophrenia, as it is for mood and anxiety disorders, there are at least two others: advanced paternal age at time of conception and frequent marijuana use in adolescence.

Adolescence is a unique time, as it is a period in life when some mental illnesses first emerge. What comes as a bit of a surprise is that we need to have a mature enough brain to “do” mental illness. In fact, it is known that many mood and affective disorders involve abnormal functioning of the frontal lobes, especially the prefrontal cortex.

Any exaggeration or deepening of a teenager’s mood swings or a predominance of one mood over another—especially anger, sadness, or irritability, and especially if it lasts longer than two weeks—is a sign of possible psychiatric problems. Changes in sleeping or eating habits, a tendency to act out more than usual, taking more risks, and spending less time with friends and family are also warning signs.

Resilience isn’t something you’re either born with or not. It’s actually something that’s learned, and for that reason teenagers, while particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of stress, are also better equipped than most adults to learn how to positively respond to stress.

"More individualized trauma is really not any different. An example would be bullying—either in person or online. Teens are very susceptible to harassment and negative criticism, and may not have the ability to see the lack of fact or logic in the accusations made by a bully. Schools and parents must take bullying seriously: it is not trivial for the victim."

Of those teenagers who were physically abused, boys revealed a greater reduction in areas of the brain associated with impulse control and substance abuse, meaning they had a greater tendency to abuse alcohol and drugs, while girls had reduced activity in the areas of the brain linked to depression.

Stress is a big player when it comes to emotional trauma. Adolescents are at especially high risk for experiencing emotional trauma compared with the rest of the population, and the consequences for their brain development can be devastating

Adolescents, whose amygdalae are less under control by their frontal lobes, are prone to responding to situations of stress with more extreme emotions than adults, who can rely on their prefrontal cortex within the frontal lobes to control their anger and fear.

teens may be less protected against stress compared with adults because of the way they respond to the stress hormone THP. Instead of a calming effect, the hormone stirs up additional anxiety in the teen.

Emotionally, the main difference between adults and adolescents is that there is much less activity in the frontal lobes of adolescents, making it harder for them to handle their emotions, especially in crisis situations.

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.