Adult Brain vs. Teen Brain

Image: Harvard Magazine

Now that you’ve learned about the different regions of the brain and what they do, I want you to start thinking about how your brain and my brain might be different. I want you to name a lobe of the brain that you think might be different in teen brains and adult brains and give a reason why you think that.

For example (I’ll use my cats): I think that my cats’ cerebellum and brainstem are smaller (less developed) than mine (relative in size to the rest of the brain) because sometimes they are really clumsy and fall off of things and that part of the brain controls movement.

So think about how teenagers and adults act differently and make a possible connection to differences in brain development!

11 Responses

  1. Raegan says:

    I think that teenagers’ frontal lobe is less developed than an adult’s would be because their decision making and judgement are typically worse than that of an adults. Teenagers usually make rash decisions, judgements based on pure emotions, and fall victim to peer pressure. This is because the frontal lobe is one of the last parts of the brain to develop in humans.

  2. Sami says:

    I think the frontal lobe is less developed because teens their decision making usually is based of emotion and their more likely to make risky decisions than adults are.

    • Sami says:

      I think the frontal lobe is less developed in teens because their decision making is usually based off emotion and their more likely to make a risky decision than adults are.

  3. jasmine says:

    adults think with the frontal lobe of their brains which means they make a more rational decision while in the teen brain the connections between the temporal lobe and the frontal lobe are still developing and they are most likely developing at different rates which means teenagers make more emotional decisions rather than rational.

  4. Kaydon W. says:

    I think that the frontal lobes of teenagers and adults are very different. I do think the emotional decision making that the teenagers have is because is they have a less developed frontal lobe. It is the other way around for Adults because the frontal lobe is more developed.

  5. Jestin Lord says:

    The Temporal lobe will be full of memories for both ages, adults and teens, the only difference is that Teens act a lot with their emotions at that age and Adults are able to control those emotions. The frontal lobe also follows what is said before, Most teens act very differential than adults so choices they make may be irrational.

  6. kenyon says:

    I think the frontal lobe, this part of the brain is used for problem-solving, planning, and judgment. this area of the brain would be more developed in an adult than a kid. their brain has longer to develop and has been through more life experiences and challenges. comparing to a kid, their brain still needs to go through more life experiences and more challenges to prepare it for the adult world. for example, a kid doesn’t have much knowledge on how to drive through city traffic, comparing to an adult that’s probably driven through that city a few times and knows how busy and stressful it can get.

  7. neal says:

    A teen bran will be more emotional and less logical and a fully grown bran will not be moved by emotion and have more processing power then a teen.

  8. vinny says:

    i think the frontal lobe on an older adult is more developed than a teenager my age, because they’ve been through life experiences and have more understanding of the world and people.

  9. Kyleisha says:

    I believe that the limbic system is different between teenagers and adults based on emotions, because teens are still learning how to work with their emotions better, as well as adults but some are more developed than others. This internal structure of the brain will be different in age groups, as well as if you have any mental health set backs.

  10. Ally says:

    The frontal lobes on an adult vs. teenager are very different because a teenager’s frontal lobes are not fully developed until 25. This is why the irrational decisions, mood changes, lack of impulse control is weaker in teenager’s brains. With time teenager’s brain mature.

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