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Home > UC Science Today > A sneak peek into the adolescent brain


	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		A sneak peek into the adolescent brain
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:00:58
	Publish Date:		2016-11-27 18:00:00
	Description:		Ah, teenagers! A time often described as an emotional, hormone-laden roller-coaster ride. We chatted with UCLA's Dr. Adriana Galván, whose research focuses on adolescent brain development. Specifically, her work examines how changes in brain maturation during adolescence relate to adolescent behavior and decision-making. In this excerpt, she describes one reason why adolescence is often fraught with emotion: "There is probably an evolutionary reason for why teenagers are more emotional. One reason is that emotions help us connect with other people. And during adolescence, it's really important that we establish good relationships, or understand the social rules of interacting with others, of having romantic partners, and so the emotional reactivity helps adolescents in that regard. Emotions also serve as an important learning tool. So when you feel a particular emotion, you're more likely to remember the event. So if an event was aversive, then those emotions will help you steer clear of those in the future. If an event is positive, similarly, you will also remember that in a way that is emotionally-based and more likely to re-engage in that behavior again. That emotional sensitivity can be really good for adolescents, but you can imagine how sometimes that can get them into trouble if they engage in a behavior they find very rewarding and emotional, but yet that behavior may not be good for them in the long run."
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