
Credit: Frantisek Vasa
New brain networks come ‘online’ during adolescence, allowing teenagers to develop more complex adult social skills, but potentially putting them at increased risk of mental illness, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Brain development during adolescence: red brain regions belong to the “conservative” pattern of adolescent development, while the blue brain regions belong to the “disruptive” pattern
Adolescence is a time of major change in life, with increasing social and cognitive skills and independence, but also increased risk of mental illness. While it is clear that these changes in the mind must reflect developmental changes in the brain, it has been unclear how exactly the function of the human brain matures as people grow up from children to young adults.
A team based in the University of Cambridge and University College London has published a major new research study that helps us understand more clearly the development of the adolescent brain.
The study collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on brain activity from 298 healthy young people, aged 14-25 years, each scanned on one to three occasions about 6 to 12 months apart. In each scanning session, the participants lay quietly in the scanner so that...