Adolescence is a time of increasing freedom and discovery, but it is also a time when teenagers undergo cognitive and emotional maturity. During adolescence, the brain changes, causing a variety of stereotyped behaviors associated with adolescence. Advances in research suggest that dangerous behaviors and poor adolescent decision-making may be due to increased activation or underdevelopment of specific brain regions rather than being essentially driven.
When the prefrontal cortex, the neural center of the brain, weighs complex decisions and becomes unable to regulate behavioral and emotional responses, certain areas of the brain related to emotions and rewards become particularly active. Adolescents have more significant incentives to acquire emotions and rewards. However, young people’s skills to exercise impulse control to assess risks and rewards are not well-developed and can lead to illegal or harmful behavior (O’Rourke et al., 2020). Notably, adolescent cognitive development differs from person to person and will not be the same for everyone, especially when influenced by the elements outlined (O’Rourke et al., 2020). As a result, teenage cognitive development is not a process that allows us to pinpoint a precise age at which cognitive maturity is attained on an individual level.
Neuroimaging theories have made great strides in understanding teenage brain development and emotional maturity over the last two decades. For example, magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown that the brain is in an active developmental state until age 25, especially concerning changes in circuits, neurotransmitter levels, and myelination (O’Rourke et al., 2020). In addition, these neurobiological processes are considered particularly vulnerable to the effects of sex hormones. Sex hormones, in combination with other external factors such as substance consumption, interact with ongoing brain development and evoke typical behaviors of teenagers during the emotional and cognitive maturity process.
Reference
O’Rourke, S., Whalley, H., Janes, S., MacSweeney, N., Skrenes, A., Crowson, S., Maclean, L. & Schwannauer, M. (2020). The development of cognitive and emotional maturity in adolescents and its relevance in judicial contexts. The University of Edinburgh, 1-122. Web.