Adolescents are the segment of the population most prone to committing reckless acts that endanger their lives, ahead of adults and children. The impulsive behavior of young people is usually attributed to immaturity or lack of self-control typical of age. However, a new study from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York (USA) has revealed that the brain has greater difficulty in curbing these impulses during this stage of development .
Neuroscientists assumed that young children tend to be more cautious than adolescents, so the immaturity theory was invalidated . In search of a biological reason to explain this point impulsivity, the group analyzed the brain activity of 83 people between the ages of 6 and 29. They had to observe a series of faces on a computer, and press a button when their expression was threatening.
The researchers monitored brain activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a region involved in containment, and found that adolescents had greater difficulty detecting a person's threatening gesture. They also registered a great difference between genders, with men being the ones who erred more frequently. It follows that the adolescent brain has to go the extra mile to distinguish a dangerous situation and contain an aggressive reaction .
This finding would explain why it is rare for juvenile offenders to reoffend once they have reached adulthood.
