Teenagers' brain connections "make them learn differently"

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http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37567362

A research team from Harvard, Columbia, and California universities conducted a study to test the roles the hippocampus and the striatum play in influencing the way teenagers learn. The study used an MRI to scan brain activity in 31 adults and 41 teenagers during a picture-based game. The results showed that the teenagers answered more questions correctly than the adults did, and the teenagers were also able to better recall details to explain why they chose their answer. The MRI results showed that both the hippocampus and the striatum were highly activated in the teenage brains during the game, but only the striatum was activated in the adult brains. This study suggests that teenage brains are wired to learn from their experiences, which the researchers propose makes them better prepared for adulthood.

This article has interesting findings, but I wonder if the author exaggerated the correlation between learning from experiences and preparing for adulthood to make the article more appealing. The content of this article relates to topics we covered in class, specifically material we learned during the section on the nervous system. I think future studies would benefit from investigating the relationship these two areas of the brain have on learning throughout various stages of the developing brain, such as infancy and early adulthood.

Comments

  1. Greer RussellOctober 25, 2016 at 9:29 AM

    I love learning about the amazing things research in neuroscience produces. I wonder why the adult brain only showed activity in the striatum of the adult brain and not the hippocampus. Is this due to the fact that adults may have already learned from their experiences? I wonder how this could possibly help with memory recall in older adults as well. If we could find a way to really activate the hippocampus and help memory for geriatric patients and perhaps even Alzheimer's patients, that would be an amazing discovery!

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  2. Adam SchenningOctober 30, 2016 at 4:41 PM

    This article caught my attention because of the similarities of the findings with information I learned in my adolescent psychology class. In my class I learned that during adolescence, that some structures in the temporal lobe, mainly the hippocampus and amygdala, were maturing. Since the hippocampus involves memory, motivation, and learning,it connects to what the study found. The participants were able to recall more details, and were able to learn more and answer the more questions correctly. In this adolescent psychology class, we also learned that the girls hippocampus matures more quickly than boys, so I wonder if there is a difference between the boys and girls responses.

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  3. UnknownNovember 27, 2016 at 11:25 PM

    I found this article interesting because of the exaggeration of the correlation between learning from experience and preparing for adulthood. It seems to me that the real findings of the study is that teenagers have an activated hippocampus and adults don't. This suggests to me that as we age, we lose activity in our hippocampus as it relates to our ability to recall. The author, however took this information and drew the conclusion that teenagers are better at recalling details and explaining their answer which has to mean that this is an asset when preparing for adulthood. I completely agree with you!

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