On a recent show about abstinence they talked about brain pruning

[goddess40]

http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/1045 The Age of Innocence on page 4 of the slide show.

"Dr. Phil turns to Dr. Frank Lawlis, a clinical psychologist, and chairman of the Dr. Phil Advisory Board. “The body might be ready hormonally, you may hit puberty, but can a 14-year-old — we’ll let Zoe speak for herself in a second — can a 14-year-old’s brain have the logic and reasoning to predict the consequences of their action?" he asks Dr. Lawlis. "No matter how smart they are, is their brain developed enough to do it?”

“Actually, they are less developed than a 10-year-old because their brain is going through a pruning, which means they lose judgment, and they have lack of future consequences,” Dr. Lawlis replies. “In many ways, they’re not able to deal with many of the major issues of relationships.”"




Has anyone ever heard about this before? If it's true I find Wisconsin's (and many other states) rush to throw kids into adult court extremely alarming. I find it disgusting to begin with but if this idea that the brain is in a regressed state it just turns it up for me. I do believe kids have to be held responsible but it should be done with the plan that they can be redirected and adult court doesn't do that.

[Dave_Fl_50]

1. Is it true? Dr. Phil is involved.

[KT2000]

2. Yes I have heard of it

This is from a book review I wrote:

"At birth, the brain has 100 billion brain cells, or neurons, that are not able to communicate with each other very well. Communication is established when neurotransmitters are sent from one neuron to another, creating a synaptic connection. Neurons also grow branches, or dendrites, that will increase the surface area for even more synapse formation. By the time a child is three, there may be as many as 100 trillion synapses.
The authors compare this mass of synapses to an overgrown garden to describe the next step in brain development. With so many synapses, the brain is on the one hand preparing for effective mental activities and on the other hand, bogged down by the volume of synapses. The brain then begins synaptic pruning that sheds unused synapses and strengthens those that are used. Repetition of experiences is one way synapses are strengthened."


This is just one of the reasons we need to clean up the environment so that brain formation is not altered by such neurotoxic chemicals as pesticides.

[goddess40]

3. Is there a period during puberty when it effects reasoning?

Actually the ability to see consequences?

(I know Dr. Phil can be a blow hard and "sometimes" he's wrong but this seems to make sense.)

[KT2000]

4. I don't know

about the status at various ages. I don't have a link but i remember reading that they have found that teenagers lack connections (most likely synapses)the allow the to make well considered decisions.
IMHO trying children as adults is nothing but the most cruel form of revenge and it should not be done.

[Reader Rabbit]

5. Sort of.

The frontal cortex, which controls complex thought, logic, and reason, does not fully develop until adulthood—sometimes well into a person's 20s. Teenagers' thought processes are governed more by the amygdala, which is the seat of emotion and instinct. This is why teenagers can be overly emotional from an adult perspective.

The problems that often come with adolescence stem from the conflict between being physically mature, but still a child mentally and emotionally. A teenager sees him or herself as an adult and, of course, attempts to branch out as such. They react emotionally to adults who they view as encroaching on "their" territory—their growing autonomy. But because they don't have mature reasoning faculties, teenagers often make decisions as a child would. In adolescence, adults must often function as teenagers' frontal cortex, since their own isn't yet fully developed. That's what gets parents and teachers into so many "You're not the boss of me!" confrontations.

And it is true that pruning is going on, but that doesn't affect behavior or reasoning, from all that I've read. It does, however, make adolescent behavior and habits extremely important, because the brain "prunes" the neural pathways that aren't being used and strengthens those that are. That's why it's so difficult for people who become substance-addicted in their teens to break away from their addiction: As their brains have grown and matured, they have been molding themselves to the addiction. The brain essentially "learns" to be addicted.