Brain Changes During the Adolescence

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Brain Changes During the Adolescence

There are several parts of the brain that undergo change during adolescence:

• First, the right ventral striatum, which regulates motivating reward behaviour, faces certain changes. These differences may steer the adolescent brain toward engagement in high reward, risk behaviours.
  
• Second, the corpus callosum develops before and during puberty.
  
• Third, the pineal gland, which produces the hormone melatonin critical to lead the body to sleep, is understood to cue the hormones to secrete melatonin much later in the 24-hour day during adolescence than in children or adults.
  
• Fourth, the cerebellum, which governs posture, movement, and balance, continues to grow into late adolescence. The cerebellum also influences other parts of the brain responsible for motor actions and is involved in cognitive functions including language.
  
• Finally, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for important executive functions including high-level cognition, is the last part of the brain to be pruned. This area grows during the pre-teen years and then shrinks as neural connections are pruned during adolescence. Recent studies have suggested that the way in which the prefrontal cortex is developed during adolescence may affect emotional regulation.

"Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science", 2007, page 46