Brain immaturity can be deadly (neurodevelopment and car crashes)

[HuckleB]

Brain immaturity can be deadly

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6891821/

"By most physical measures, teenagers should be the world's best drivers. Their muscles are supple, their reflexes quick, their senses at a lifetime peak. Yet car crashes kill more of them than any other cause -- a problem, some researchers believe, that is rooted in the adolescent brain.

A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, a finding with implications for a host of policies, including the nation's driving laws.

"We'd thought the highest levels of physical and brain maturity were reached by age 18, maybe earlier -- so this threw us," said Jay Giedd, a pediatric psychiatrist leading the study, which released its first results in April. That makes adolescence "a dangerous time, when it should be the best."

Last month, Sen. William C. Mims (R-Loudoun) cited brain development research in proposing a Virginia bill that would ban cell phone use in vehicles for drivers younger than 18. It passed Friday.

..."

[prodigal_green]

1. No marriage until after 25!!

should be a law.

[DeaconBlues]

2. well, this is a big DUH!

Has anyone ever been in a car with a teenager behind the wheel? I think I would rather go bungee jumping.

[freeplessinseattle]

3. one of my family therapy profs says teens are "brain-damaged"

when trying to explain to parents why their child turned into a moody irrational person suddenly. essentially, they are, she tells them, bc their brains aren't fully developed yet they're at this transitional phase into adulthood, and the teen craziness should subside once the brain catches up.

[Krupskaya]

6. That's what I've heard, too --

that teens' brains are developing at a similar rate and process as a toddler's brain. Hence the similarities in behavior.

[wellstone dem]

7. My 16 year old said

while learning to drive, "I should not be allowed to do this."

[HuckleB]

21. Ah, we're all brain damaged. Just in different ways at different ages.

[smirkymonkey]

4. Well, that explains the Bush Administration...

of course age has nothing to do with it.

[HuckleB]

5. Indeed. Arrested development is very real. -eom-

[hector459]

8. What's the "excuse" for the parents is what I want to know? Parental

brains must be damaged. Giving teens $40K plus cars to just drive around in is ridiculous. Don't parents have any responsibilites as for teen driving safety? Black teens are being shot by each other and white teens are killing themselves and others with automobiles. We blame brain immaturity for the auto deaths, what do we blame for the shooting deaths? It's like parents are absent from either equation.

[TahitiNut]

9. That's why the DRAFT (and recruitment) targets 18-24 year-olds.

:shrug:

[JohnOneillsMemory]

10. Bingo. No Child Left Behind. On their way to Iran. Unless college helps.

Recruiters are reaching out for middle school through high school per the rules of the NCLB Act. Hook them young as tobacco companies did.

BUT. This means their brains are still forming in COLLEGE! This must be why the effort to chill 'liberal' profs is going on.

My mother teaches hisory in college and always starts class with the First Amendment. She's teaching Roman Empire and connecting the dots to the Neocons.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

11. Studies are showing CELL PHONES hurt the brain, not just driving.

I'll bet this story is meant to cover up that lovely finding being talked about in Europe.

[brentspeak]

12. Medicine has been mistakingly promoting the idea

that people's brains stop significantly developing once that person reaches a certain very young age. Only recently has that age been "raised" to 18; for decades it was age 5. Psychiatrists have been for years feeding their adult patients/victims the line that "an old dog can't learn new tricks -- sorry by you're too old". And I was only 20 when some new shrink told me that it was too late for me to learn the piano, learn to draw, etc.!

[AlienGirl]

14. Never assume that what we "know" about the brain today

...matches what we'll learn tomorrow.

Brain science is too new, and the tools are still too crude, to be sure of anything. Until recently it was also believed that brain cells could not regenerate; then stem cells were found in rat brains.

Psychologists still believe people don't recall anything before about age four, and have plausible theories about why this is; but I remember being 14 months old, and I know people with memories of being pre-verbal infants. And nobody knows yet how Mind and Brain fit together.

Tucker

[HuckleB]

16. Huh?

What "medicine" has been doing that?

[brentspeak]

17. Well, did you read the article?

The article itself states that medicine's theory on age-dependent brain development has had to revised upward to age 25. Here's a less-recent piece that places the maximal brain development age even earlier -- to late adolescence:

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/family/350-850/350-850.html

"Recent research suggests that teens' brains are not completely developed until late in adolescence. Specifically, studies suggest that the connections between neurons affecting emotional, physical and mental abilities are incomplete. This could explain why some teens seem to be inconsistent in controlling their emotions, impulses, and judgments."

If, five years ago, you would have suggested to a neurologist that the human brain doesn't stop developing until the age of 25, you would have been laughed out of the room. Why? Because it was agreed upon that '18' was the maximal age. And if thirty years ago, when neuroscience was in agreement that the only brain development significant enough to care about occured within the first five years of child's life, that same neurologist would have laughed someone out of the room for suggesting that EIGHTEEN was the end-stage in brain development.

[HuckleB]

18. Yeah, I read the article. I posted it.

And that's a whole lot different than what was written in your post. Thank you very much.

[htuttle]

13. Insurance companies already know this from their actuarial tables

You will have a very tough time insuring someone under 25 to drive any kind of commercial vehicle (such a cab). Most insurance companies just plain won't do it. Others that do, charge a very, very high premium on drivers under 25.

[DS1]

15. They could've skipped the research and looked at insurance policy

in the US, AFAIK they all drop some points after you hit 25.

Me, I slowed down around 29, but not much :D

[leesa]

19. Is THIS what's wrong with Republicans??

[HuckleB]

20. Let's see: War on Iraq, Social Security Privatization Scheme, ...

Ignore Terror Warnings Prior to 9/11, Cut Taxes for the Wealthy and Send the Federal Deficit through the Roof and on and on and on.

Yeah, you got it. Immature brains doing stupid, risky things.