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We all know that teen-parent relations can be a tricky business. Now neuroscientists from several leading US universities think they’ve found some new brain evidence that helps explain why.
The group from the Universities of Pittsburgh, California-Berkeley and Harvard, and led by Kyung Hwa Lee, invited 32 healthy pre-teens and teens – average age 14 and including 22 girls – into their brain imaging lab. The adolescents lay in the scanner as they listened to two 30-second clips of their own mother criticizing them. Here’s a sample:
“One thing that bothers me about you is that you get upset over minor issues. I could tell you to take your shoes from downstairs. You’ll get mad that you have to pick them up and actually walk upstairs and put them in your room.”
Ouch. The researchers focused on three particular brain networks in the teenagers’ brains: areas previously associated with processing negative emotion (e.g. in the limbic system); areas involved in regulating emotion (e.g. in the prefrontal cortex); and finally, neural areas involved in understanding other people’s perspective (e.g. the junction of the temporal and parietal lobes). They looked to see how much activity occurred in these areas as the teens listened to their Moms’ nagging, as compared with when they listened to their Moms talking about irrelevant boring stuff like grocery shopping. They also looked to see if any brain activity changes lingered afterwards.
www.wired.com
The group from the Universities of Pittsburgh, California-Berkeley and Harvard, and led by Kyung Hwa Lee, invited 32 healthy pre-teens and teens – average age 14 and including 22 girls – into their brain imaging lab. The adolescents lay in the scanner as they listened to two 30-second clips of their own mother criticizing them. Here’s a sample:
“One thing that bothers me about you is that you get upset over minor issues. I could tell you to take your shoes from downstairs. You’ll get mad that you have to pick them up and actually walk upstairs and put them in your room.”
Ouch. The researchers focused on three particular brain networks in the teenagers’ brains: areas previously associated with processing negative emotion (e.g. in the limbic system); areas involved in regulating emotion (e.g. in the prefrontal cortex); and finally, neural areas involved in understanding other people’s perspective (e.g. the junction of the temporal and parietal lobes). They looked to see how much activity occurred in these areas as the teens listened to their Moms’ nagging, as compared with when they listened to their Moms talking about irrelevant boring stuff like grocery shopping. They also looked to see if any brain activity changes lingered afterwards.
The Teen Brain “Shuts Down” When It Hears Mom’s Criticism
Neuroscientists scanned the brains of teenagers while they listened to criticism from their Moms. Areas of the teens' brains involved emotional regulation and taking other people's perspective appeared to shut down while they listened to the criticism.
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