The Medical Freedom Channel

“Scientists are gaining new insights into remarkable changes in teenagers’ brains that may help explain why the teen years are so hard on young people — and on their parents. From ages 11 to 14, a person loses a substantial fraction of the connections between cells in the part of the brain that enable him or her to think clearly and make good decisions. This loss is a vital part of growing up. It clears out, or ‘prunes,’ unneeded wiring to make way for more efficient information-processing in adults. ‘Ineffective or weak connections are pruned in much the same way a gardener would prune a tree or bush, giving the plant the desired shape,’ said Alison Gopnik, a professor of child development at the University of California-Berkeley. The pruning process ‘appears to follow the principle of use it or lose it,’ said Jay Giedd, a child development expert at the National Institute of Mental Health. ‘Neural connections or synapses that get exercised are retained, while those that don’t are lost.’” (01/01/07)