The teen brain: insights from neuroimaging.
Few parents of a teenager are surprised to hear that the brain of a 16-year-old is different from the brain of an 8-year-old. Yet to pin down these differences in a rigorous scientific way has been elusive. Magnetic resonance imaging, with the capacity to provide exquisitely accurate quantifications of brain anatomy and physiology without the use of ionizing radiation, has launched a new era of adolescent neuroscience. Longitudinal studies of subjects from ages 3-30 years demonstrate a general pattern of childhood peaks of gray matter followed by adolescent declines, functional and structural increases in connectivity and integrative processing, and a changing balance between limbic/subcortical and frontal lobe functions, extending well into young adulthood. Although overinterpretation and premature application of neuroimaging findings for diagnostic purposes remains a risk, converging data from multiple imaging modalities is beginning to elucidate the implications of these brain changes on cognition, emotion, and behavior.
Giedd
Jay N
JN
Brain Imaging Unit, Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. jg@nih.gov
D000293:Adolescent; D000296:Adolescent Psychiatry; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005824:Genetics, Behavioral; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009488:Neurosciences