Brain troubles teens
This month, neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of University College London described the role the prefrontal cortex plays in higher-level thinking, empathy, guilt and understanding people's emotions. She said scientists have found that when teenagers make decisions, they underuse their medial prefrontal cortex.
A teenager's judgement of what they would do in a given situation is driven by the simple question: "What would I do?", she explained. Adults, by contrast, ask: "What would I do, given how I would feel and given how the people around me would feel as a result of my actions?"
Financial Times
(Brendan J O'Byrne)
