Risky Teen Behavior Is
Driven by an
Imbalance in Brain
Development
A mismatch in the maturation of brain networks leaves
adolescents open to risky behavior but also allows for leaps
in cognition and adaptabili
...
Risky Teen Behavior Is
Driven by an
Imbalance in Brain
Development
A mismatch in the maturation of brain networks leaves
adolescents open to risky behavior but also allows for leaps
in cognition and adaptability
• By Jay N. Giedd on June 1, 2015
•
Credit: Illustration by Harry Campbell, Photograph by Ethan Hill
I N B R I E F
• MRI studies show that the teenage brain is not an old child brain or a half-baked
adult brain; it is a unique entity characterized by changeability and an increase in
networking among brain regions.
• The limbic system, which drives emotions, intensifies at puberty, but the prefrontal
cortex, which controls impulses, does not mature until the 20s. This mismatch makes
teens prone to risk taking but also allows them to adapt readily to their environment.
• Earlier onset of puberty in children worldwide is expanding the years during which
the mismatch occurs.
• Greater understanding of the teen brain should help parents and society better
distinguish typical behavior from mental illness while helping teens become the
people they want to be.
The “teen brain” is often ridiculed as an oxymoron—an example of biology
gone wrong.
Neuroscientists have explained the risky, aggressive or just plain baffling
behavior of teenagers as the product of a brain that is somehow compromised.
Groundbreaking research in the past 10 years, however, shows that this view is
wrong. The teen brain is not defective. It is not a half-baked adult brain,
either. It has been forged by evolution to function differently from that of a
child or an adult.
Foremost among the teen brain's features is its ability to change in response to
the environment by modifying the communications networks that connect
brain regions. This special changeability, or plasticity, is a double-edged
sword. It allows teenagers to make enormous strides in thinking and
socialization. But the morphing landscape also makes them vulnerable to
dangerous behaviors and serious mental disorders.
The most recent studies indicate that the riskiest behaviors arise from a
mismatch between the maturation of networks in the limbic system, which
drives emotions and becomes turbo-boosted in puberty, and the maturation of
networks in the prefrontal cortex, which occurs later and promotes sound
judgment and the control of impulses. Indeed, we now know that the
prefrontal cortex continues to change prominently until well into a person's
20s. And yet puberty seems to be starting earlier, extending the “mismatch
years.”
[Show More]
![Preview of AORN PERIOP 101 FINAL EXAM 2026 QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED ANSWERS [LATEST UPDATE]](https://browseimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/paper-images/2026/04/07/sGJvJ3aH2026-04-07-04-5869d464cbba16f.png)
