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Inside the Teenage Brain: The Wiring of the Brain

NARRATOR:
Late at night, Dr. Jay Giedd heads to work. He, too, is grappling with the teenage world, trying to
untangle the workings and wirings of the adolescent brain. This doctor is crossing over a new
threshold to a fresh understanding of adolescence.

DR. JAY GIEDD, National Institute of Mental Health:


I think people for generations have been fascinated by teen behavior and what is happening in
teens. But for so long, to actually look inside the biology of teen behavior has been very elusive.
And we just haven’t had the technology or the tools to try to peer into the so-called “black box.”

NARRATOR:
But now he does. Dr. Giedd of the National Institute of Mental Health gets the use of this
imaging machine one night a week to look at the brain structure of normal children. Teens come
in and sometimes even sleep in this large magnet so he can take a long hard, look inside their
brains.

DR. GIEDD:
Now, for the first time in our human history, we can actually start exploring the living, growing,
activity of the human brain.

DR. GIEDD:
[To patient in MRI] Five, four, three, two, one, blast off.

NARRATOR:
What he discovered in the all-important part of the brain that sits behind the forehead, in an area
called the frontal cortex, was an unexpected growth spurt, an overproduction of cells just before
puberty.

DR. GIEDD:
This is a process that we knew happened in the womb, maybe even the first 18 months of life.
But it was only when we started following the same children by scanning their brains at two-year
intervals that we detected a second wave of over- production. And this second wave of over-
production is manifest by an actual thickening in the gray matter or the thinking part in the front
parts of the brain.

DR. CHARLES NELSON, University of Minnesota:


Many people mistakenly believed that most of the changes occurred in the first few years of life,
and that after a child was about 3, there was actually relatively little change occurring. And we
know now that’s absolutely incorrect.

DR. GIEDD:
Well, I think the most surprising thing has been how much the teen brain is changing. By age 6,
the brain’s already 95 percent of its adult size. But the gray matter or thinking part of the brain

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continues to thicken throughout childhood as the brain cells grow extra connections, much like a
tree growing extra branches, twigs and roots.

NARRATOR:
It’s like this. The brain grows like a tree. First there is a flurry of growth. Then unused branches
or pathways are pruned. And it is this pruning that gives the tree its shape for the future. [13:16]

MECHANIC:
I’ll hold this in position because it has to have a little bit of an angle. You want to tighten this
clamp. [unintelligible] with your fingers first.

NARRATOR:
For Charlie, as he works in his uncle’s garage, the skills he’s acquiring will strengthen certain
neural pathways. What he practices will combine with his own genetic heritage to consolidate
the wiring in certain parts of his brain and not others.

MECHANIC (Charlie’s uncle):


The last thing we want to do is give this thing a little wiggle and—

CHARLIE:
Want me to hold it right there?

MECHANIC:
Yes, right there is perfect.

DR. GIEDD:
The pruning-down phase is perhaps even more interesting because our leading hypothesis for
that is the “Use it or lose it” principle. Those cells and connections that are used will survive and
flourish. Those cells and connections that are not used will wither and die. So if the teen is doing
music or sports or academics, those are the cells and connections that will be hard-wired. If
they’re lying on the couch or playing video games or MTV, those are the cells and connections
that are going to survive.

NARRATOR:
It is not only what a teenager does that matters, but how old he is and what the immature brain is
capable of doing. Some areas coordinate and oversee others. And it those parts of the brain that
have long interested neuroscientists.

DR. NELSON:
We’ve known for a long time that what we actually call the pre-frontal cortex, the part that sits
behind your forehead, is involved in planning behavior, your use of strategies, a technical term
we call cognitive flexibility, which is: can you change your mind and do you have sort of a fluid
way of going about solving problems?

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DR. GIEDD:
The part of the brain that is the so-called CEO or the executive of the brain is still being built
during the teenage years. Teens are capable of enormous intellectual and artistic
accomplishments. But that basic part of the brain that gives us strategies and organizing and
perhaps warns us of potential consequences isn’t fully on board yet. [15:23]

NARRATOR:
The risks of a severe concussion or a turned ankle, for instance. An adult brain might call for a
helmet here or suggest this is not quite the moment to take a drag. But when you’re very good,
very determined, and very young, it’s easy to feel invulnerable.

BOY WITH ROLLERSKATES #1:


On some occasions, I wear helmets, but not that much. I come here almost every day, so it’s not
that much for me if I fall because I’m kind of used to it. I just get little scrapes. No, it’s not that
risky.

NARRATOR:
Well, not that risky would be one way to put it.

[Boy at the skate park sits down holding his head in his hands]

BOY WITH ROLLERSKATES #2:


It’s one of, like, the most common, either rolling or wrists.

DR. NELSON:
Adolescence has always been a period of high risk. We know that teenagers engage in risky
behavior and they have always engaged in risky behavior. There’s nothing new about that now.
And because the child—the 13- or 14- or 15- year-old—still has an immature frontal cortex, they
often do not make the most responsible, reasoned decisions. And by virtue of having things
available that can do harm, they often wind up in a higher risk group than I experienced as a
child myself.

NARRATOR:
The prevalence of drugs, for instance. Here at a rave party, ecstasy and other drugs are a kind of
rite of passage.

GIRL AT PARTY:
When you’re on E, you love everyone. Like, I love you.

BOY AT PARTY:
Very similar to San Francisco in 1969.

GIRL AT PARTY:
The way you feel, like, your hands are soft. You can touch your face. Your skin is very, very
soft. People touch you. It’s nice.

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DR. GIEDD:
It’s also a particularly cruel irony of nature, I think, that right at this time, when the brain is most
vulnerable, is also a time when teens are most likely to experiment with drugs or alcohol. If
they’re doing drugs or alcohol that evening, it may not just be affecting their brains for that night
or even for that weekend but for the next, you know, 80 years of their life. [17:42]

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