Wednesday 16 January 2013

Dangerous behaviour abounds - teen brains

puddle jumping
Blame it on the teenaged brain. The inability to predict actions, to control impulses, the impelling drive to challenges physics, puddle jumping, drunk driving, drunk sledding, riding on the back of trucks, and all the other crazy behaviour you see in the news.

The inability to monitor their behaviour: texting while driving, sexting, giving in to peer pressure demands of peers and boyfriends, seems to call some.
Thin ice


Unfortunately, it seems that teens grow up, but not all grow out of the behaviour. We find 40-somethings in the news, with high falutin' high-speed snow machines, and an income to support these expensive hobbies, high marking on mountains, during avalanche seasons.

Or the incident where the off-duty police officers, late at night in the dark, used a radar speed gun, to measure the speed of their sled.

Widows mourn two men killed on lake - DurhamRegion

www.durhamregion.com/print/125738Share
15 Mar 2007 – He died in a snowmobile collision on Saturday. ... an off-duty Durham Regional police officer, were both killed while ... According to Kawartha Lakes OPP, Mr. White was driving his Arctic Cat at high speed and Mr. Hearn was standing on the ice, monitoring the speed with a radar gun when the sled hit him.


river jumping?
Incidents drain our system and tax rural volunteer firefighters and infrastructure. With the number of kids who engage in dangerous activities I'm surprised some contribute to the gene pool at all!

 Judgement, adaptation, innovation are at its peak, without mature controls to govern behaviour.

Teen brains are susceptible to sleep deprivation. How many tired teens do you know?

Teen brains are creating and forming many new synapses, and until the adult brain prunes the brain cell connections it doesn't need, it grows quickly. Eventually, as adults the brain uses neural pathways more succinctly.


A WORK IN PROGRESS
The train was coming as I took the photo.
A mom and her teens were up there.

The Teen Brain



"Research during the past 10 years, powered by technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, has revealed that young brains have both fast-growing synapses and sections that remain unconnected. This leaves teens easily influenced by their environment and more prone to impulsive behavior, even without the impact of souped-up hormones and any genetic or family predispositions.

Teen brains, for example, are more susceptible than their adult counterparts to alcohol-induced toxicity. Jensen highlights an experiment in which rat brain cells were exposed to alcohol, which blocks certain synaptic activity."
    
bridge jumping
 
wakeboarding

3 comments:

Red said...

Those kids get to do some exciting things. I was one of the worst of the teen age brains and I can look back at many very risky things I did. That's why a have a post about young males and their behavior.

Powell River Books said...

I have to admit I survived "teen brain". I did some crazy things in my youth including bridge jumping, swimming in irrigation canals under bridges (that was some rancid air underneath), swimming too far in lakes, and driving too fast. Fortunately I didn't have kids I had to warn against doing what I did. - Margy

carol l mckenna said...

'Spot on' post and excellent action photography ~

(A Creative Harbor) ^_^