According to relevant media reports, this is the conclusion reached by Judith, a professor at the American Institute of Mental Health, after studying 13 subjects.
This structure is directly related to the immature behavior of teenagers. What kind of mysterious organization is it? How does it play a role in adolescent behavior? Yin Wengang, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, clearly stated in an interview with this reporter that "the statement that immature behavior of teenagers is not completely related to brain development has long existed, and it is not a very new conclusion".
Brain development is a process of gradually eliminating brain cell links from back to front, which largely repeats the evolution process of human brain for millions of years.
The earliest part of brain evolution is also the earliest mature part of human brain development.
According to the Associated Press, Professor Judith of the American Institute of Mental Health said that some immature behaviors of teenagers can be attributed to the immature lobes in the front of their brains.
According to the report, Professor Judith scanned the human brain for 10 years, including children aged 4 to adults aged 25.
The main purpose of this study is to reveal the process of adolescent brain maturation.
The results show that brain development is a process of gradually eliminating brain cell links from back to front.
It is found that when people grow up, the brain also goes through a process of gradual maturity from back to front, and the last mature part is the protruding part of the front part of the brain, which is said to be mainly responsible for reasoning and solving problems.
Professor Judith also pointed out that the development of children's brains after 10 years largely repeated the evolution of human brains for millions of years.
The earliest part of brain evolution is also the earliest mature part of human brain development, which is mainly responsible for people's basic living needs.
But those temporary lobes in the cerebral cortex are the last mature parts, responsible for thinking and reasoning.
It is reported that the substance that plays a connecting role between brain cells is usually called "gray matter". The purpose of this study is to observe the changes of gray matter density during human growth.
Studies have shown that with the growth of young people, the density of gray matter is decreasing, which shows that the connection between brain cells is decreasing.
This discovery coincides with some original theories.
There is a theory that as the brain matures, some connections between nerve cells will decrease, so that the remaining connections can be strengthened.
Supporting this theory is cardiologist Dr. Jay Kidd.
It is also known that Dr. Kidd conducted a large-scale study at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, which lasted for 13 years to reveal the whole brain development process from children and adolescents to early adulthood.
The main task of Dr. Kidd's experiment is to set up a "separate photo album" for volunteers of all ages to record the development and changes of their brains.
More than 800 young volunteers signed up/kloc-0. Their main task is to go to Dr. Kidd's laboratory once every two years to have an MRI examination and "photograph" their brains.
The results of this study show that the gray matter of the brain decreases slowly at the rate of 0.7% every year until the early twenties, which is like pruning a tree, and many unnecessary brain cells disappear rapidly at this stage.
On the other hand, white matter thickens year by year like annual rings.
White matter is like an insulator on a wire, which can make the transmission of nerve signals faster and more effective.
Frontal lobe, located at the forefront of the brain, is the latest part of the brain's development and maturity, which is directly related to human behavior.
Under normal circumstances, the frontal lobe has a control effect on its lower brain tissue, and when the frontal lobe is immature, this control effect will be weak.
"Why are teenagers prone to immature performances such as extreme emotions and excessive behavior? This is related to the immature frontal lobe of the brain.
Yin Wengang, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with this reporter.
Professor Yin told reporters that the human brain can be divided into three parts according to evolution, namely reptile brain, mammalian brain and the most developed part of human cerebral cortex.
Among them, the reptile brain dominates the behavior related to instinct; Mammalian brain mainly refers to the limbic system in the brain, which is closely related to human emotional activities and developed from mammals; The cerebral cortex can control the crawling brain and care for the brain.
During the development of human brain, the cerebral cortex develops from back to front-occipital lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe and frontal lobe.
Frontal lobe, located at the forefront of the brain, is the latest part of brain development and maturity, which is directly related to human behavior.
In view of the influence of frontal lobe on teenagers' immature behavior, Professor Yin said that in the human brain, the limbic system and its nuclei are closely related to people's emotions.
He further explained that taking apricot kernels as an example, apricot kernels control people's anger, fear and other emotions, and are easily aroused.
Under normal circumstances, the frontal lobe has a control effect on apricot kernels, but when the frontal lobe is immature, the control effect of apricot kernels is weak for some young people.
"In the trinity brain structure, the upper brain tissue has an inhibitory effect on the lower brain tissue.
According to Professor Yin, reptiles basically have no cerebral cortex, mammals have some old cerebral cortex and limbic system, and human frontal lobe is the most developed.
"Many experimental observations show that the left brain controls the right brain, the front part of the brain controls the back part, and the upper part of the brain controls the lower part.
"He said.
Professor Judith's research looks for the causes of some psychological and behavioral phenomena from the perspective of neural development and finds some connections.
At the same time, some people think that whether there is a causal relationship between adolescent brain hypoplasia and immature behavior is still debatable.
The report mentions that "the left hemisphere of the brain that controls the movement of the right hand is more mature than the right hemisphere."
This can also explain that when children start school, most people write with their right hands. "
In response to this statement, Professor Yin Wengang told reporters that there are many reasons and theories for why most people write with their right hands.
According to him, there is a view that people tend to use their right hands in the embryonic period.
There are also views that this is genetically determined, and the right hand is conducive to evolution and so on.
As for the statement that "the left hemisphere of the brain that controls the movement of human right hand is more mature than the right hemisphere", it is only a recent discovery, which can play a certain role in enriching scientific data.
"Why most people are used to using their right hands" is still a mystery.
Huang, a doctoral student at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, questioned this.
She said that it is not "because of this development law of the brain, teenagers are depressed, so most people write with their right hands."
There may be a strong correlation between them, but whether it is causality or causality, or the result of two aspects of the same factor, is not immediately conclusive. It is even possible that their causes are different, and these two results happen at the same time.
She believes that there are many reasons for psychological and behavioral abnormalities, and many factors from the acquired environment also play an important role, and these factors from the environment and life events may affect brain development.
However, in response to this experiment, Dr. Huang also said that this study sought the causes of some psychological and behavioral phenomena from the perspective of neural development, and also found some connections, which was interesting from the results.
She told reporters that in the process of brain development, neural connections are constantly optimized, redundant connections are eliminated, and remaining functions are strengthened. Functions related to basic survival needs are given priority, and higher-level functions are behind. These are generally accepted laws.
However, the immature prefrontal lobe or some degree of dysfunction will inevitably lead to psychological and behavioral abnormalities.
Finally, Dr. Huang said: "Judith has made some progress from the perspective of neuropsychology and neurobehavior.
The treatment of mental illness is very difficult. If we can understand the cause and effect of the problem, the treatment will be more targeted and help to develop more effective treatment techniques.
However, what will happen in the process of neural development and what is its key mechanism are still very vague, which is believed to be the focus of the next study. "