What lurks inside the teenage brain?

BlameMyBrain.jpgAuthor Nicola Morgan has written a book on neuroscience for teenagers, that explains why teenage experience and behaviour seems so intensely different during adolescence.

The book, Blame My Brain, manages to accurately present scientific research, without presenting any ‘just so’ stories. Various theories and approaches are given where a strong conclusion is not widely accepted.

It also manages to explain neuroscience in a straightforward yet engaging way:

For a long time, people have assumed that this inability to get out of bed is just teenagers being lazy. We have blamed it on the fact that they choose to stay up too late and therefore can’t get up in the morning. But new research shows that laziness and deliberately late nights are not entirely to blame.

When the body clock switches off, it tells our bodies to start feeling sleepy, and the brain produces a hormone called melatonin. This chemical prepares our brains to be sleepy. Tests have shown that in adolescence, melatonin is produced much later in the evening than in younger children. About the same as adults in fact. This is why you don’t often feel sleepy until late in the evening.

It also includes plenty of tests and demonstrations that the reader can try out on themselves or their friends and family!

Link to details of Blame My Brain: The amazing teenage brain revealed.

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