你的年輕“瘋狂”找到了合理的科學解釋

The “crazy teenager” is one of the oldest social tropes around. But adolescents aren’t really crazy at all—in fact, they’re usually acting pretty rationally considering the biological earthquake raging inside their heads, prominent neuroscientist Dr. Frances Jensen explained during the 3rd annual Fortune Brainstorm Health conference in Laguna Niguel, CA.

“瘋狂青少年”是人們最愛給年輕人貼的社會標簽，然而青少年其實完全算不上瘋狂。特別是考慮到他們的大腦正在經(jīng)歷的巨大生理變化，大多青少年們的行為反而是非常理性的。這便是知名神經(jīng)科學家弗朗斯.詹森醫(yī)生在加州尼古湖召開的第三屆財富腦力風暴健康峰會上的發(fā)言。

“Teenagers are not adults with fewer miles on them,” said Jensen, a professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Brain development and “remodeling” occurs from the back of the brain to the front; the latter portion is what contains the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for critical skills like decision making, the way one expresses his or her personality, and helps dictate social interactions.

詹森醫(yī)生是賓西法尼亞大學佩雷爾曼醫(yī)學院的神經(jīng)學教授，他在會上指出：“青少年并非‘小一點的成年人’”。青少年的大腦從前部到后部都在發(fā)育和重塑。大腦前部的前額皮質(zhì)主要負責一些關鍵技能，比如決策能力，自我表達的能力和社會交往的能力等。

“Early in life, children’s brains aren’t as connected,” said Jensen. So reactions to certain situations may come off as extreme even when they seem unwarranted. “They’re kinda like Ferraris with weak brakes at that point.”

“兒童的大腦則沒有那么強的關聯(lián)性。”所以兒童對某些情況的反映常常傾向極端，甚至看似不可理喻。“他們就像剎車不良的法拉利跑車。”

But modern society is also affecting these behaviors. “The brain hasn’t changed in the last millennia, but our environment has,” as Jensen puts it. Stressors such as the pressure to succeed and social media anxiety, normalized drug use, and other factors may well influence the structuring (and restructuring) of the teenage brain.

然而現(xiàn)代社會也在影響著兒童和青少年的行為。詹森指出：“過去一千年，人類的大腦結構沒有任何變化，但我們的環(huán)境有了翻天覆地的變化。”成功的壓力、社交媒體焦慮癥、藥物使用常態(tài)化等等都是現(xiàn)代人的壓力源，它們很可能會影響到青少年的大腦構造和重構過程。

Jensen’s ultimate piece of advice? “Be a better parent and give that frontal lobe an assist.”

對此，詹森也給出了自己的建議：“做更好的父母，幫助孩子的前腦發(fā)育。”