"The brain, more than any other organ, is where experience becomes flesh"--Claudia Wallis (Times Article)

I have been reading for class about brain development and it's really fascinating. For many decades, we believed that the brain was fully developed by age 12. Today, it is said that the brain is developing until about the age of 25. What's most interesting is that the gray matter in the brain is changing due to environment and experience. another note about gray matter: teens lose 15% gray matter and teens with schizophrenia lose 25% gray matter. All DNA and genes aside, I feel that I can safely say that I have become who I am today because of environment and experience (nuture, rather than nature). Sure there are certain pre-programmed personality/character traits within all of us. But then how do we explain our constantly changing views/ideals/ideas etc. My brain is always absorbing new information and adding it to my ideas and views on life, the world, and people. My schema is always being shaped and re-shaped as I gather more information. I also found it interesting that teenagers and adolescents are motivated by immediate rewards or consequences. I think it's important for me because I work with kids and I realize that this is indeed true. If you punish or reward a kid directly after the positive or negative action, you are shaping their behavior (conditioned response). If you continue to do this and build that structure of punishments and rewards, it will become second nature and they will expect a punishment or reward each time they display that certain behavior and, thus, they will shift or change their behavior in the future. I guess it's kind of like manipulation but it's positive ;)


whats even more fascinating, though, is another article that talks about how it's not just the teen brain that causes them to be wild and crazy. a lot of the reason we have all these teen problems such as bullying, anti-social behavior, teen violence is because teens hang out with teens. in other cultures across the world, teens spend most of their time with adults (whether it's helping out with chores or labor), they are mostly with adults. thus, they don't display a lot of these teen behaviors we have in America (socialization). when these teens in other countries were exposed to western culture tv-shows and schooling, they started displaying those behaviors. thus, it goes back to my belief that it is more about socialization, environment, and experience rather than biology. the brain and it's development is important because it actually shapes the schema and beliefs about the world but the brain is still mostly shaped by our external experience being internalized. there are only so many stages of development in the brain that are not influenced by our own experiences. the brain doesn't influence us, we influence the brain.