Grey Matter
Copyright 2006 by Suzy Wurtz
Our family reads various forms of news
on the Web, and when we find an article of interest, we may send the link. This
is an updated version of age-old tradition in my family. My 81-year-old mom
still sends me newspaper articles from my hometown paper about people I know or
things of interest. I send newspaper articles and cartoons to friends in other
towns, too.
Last month, I received an email with an Internet link from my
daughter to a science article entitled, “Teenage Brain Lacks Empathy.”
Intrigued, I pulled up a piece that started, “If you ever sense that teenagers
are not taking your feelings in to account, it’s probably because they’re just
incapable of doing so.”
So this is why we pay for Internet access?
It was a short article based on one study in the United
Kingdom about the physical area of the brain associated with high-level thinking
processes like guilt and empathy. The study found that this area doesn’t get the
same activity workout in teens as is does in adults. It stated that when making
decisions, the teen used the back of the brain; the adult used the front of the
brain. This may be one reason why their reactions differ. By the time we grow
up, though, we’re all using the same grey matter region.
However, it noted that sensitivity in adults also comes from
social interaction as well as physical brain action. Gee, I think we call that
“life experience.”
But I was pleased that my teen was sharing the study with me,
no matter where the impulse came from inside her brain, so I started a
discussion on the article.
"What do you think it means?” I asked.
“Well, when I don’t do something the first time you ask, and
you have to ask me again, maybe that’s why,” she said.
“Hmmm, a scientific excuse for ignoring me? How convenient,”
I snipped curtly.
Whoa! What part of my adult brain did that response come
from? She mumbled something as she shrugged and sauntered out of the room.
It made me think about the choices we make at all ages,
regardless of our brain development. Though my response to my daughter was
somewhat, “automatic,” it was a choice nonetheless. And certainly not an
empathic choice that would keep the conversation open. I could say, “Well, I’m
always flip and sarcastic.” But that’s not true. No one “always” behaves only
one way. I made a choice.
I spend time with kids as a “guest teacher,” and I know that
even pre-schoolers make the choice of whether to follow directions, share, say
“please,” and wait their turns. Older children and teens also make behavior
choices of whether to exclude kids, take drugs, do homework, or spread gossip.
By the time we get to the grown-up workplace, we have a choice about whether to
cheat, belittle someone’s opinion, or scapegoat another for our own failings.
Though brain development plays a role, I can’t buy the excuse
of “that’s just the way I am” from a child, a teen, or an adult. Or from myself.
We are all capable of choosing our behavior every minute of every day. It’s just
that we sometimes let the auto-pilot of our past behavior take over.
I think my kid’s 16-year-old brain and my 51-year-old brain
make conscious choices, good and bad, no matter whether those choices come from
the front of the head or the back of the head.
And now that I look at it, I feel lucky to have the
opportunity to make my next choice a better one.
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