Thank you, teenagers!

There is such baggage with the term "teenager" that I don't like to use it, but instead of dropping the term, here's a shot at attaching a new experience, a new association, a new meaning ...

Teens value high reward more than adults, and without discounting risk, say scientists in a recent National Geographic article, "Teenage Brains," in the October 2011 issue. They are designed to push the evolutionary envelope outside of the boundaries, the status quo, before their brains go through a newly discovered process.  What we adults have labeled "irresponsibility" and "risky behavior" pushes the boundaries of normal behavior.  This push gives our species some extra room to develop a higher level of adaptability before the new process begins.  Between ages 12 and 25, their cortex reorganizes and "greases" the most frequently used or most important neural pathways.  This reorganization begins at the back of their brain and works its way to the front.  The circuits are shortened and the myelin sheathing is thickened.  This makes the brain much more efficient - the thicker sheathing and the shortening of the circuits through rewiring makes it work much faster.  All this is good for human evolution (survival).

Thanks, teens.      Marty