I Want It Now! The Neuroscience of Teenage Impulsivity

kids.frontiersin.org What would you rather do on a hot summer day? Go to football practice or have ice cream by the pool? The pool might be much more fun than going to any sports practice, so it may seem to be an easy choice. However, if you miss practice often, your coach might not line you up at the next match, and you will not improve overall. In the light of these future consequences, attending practice might not look so bad after all. Yet, research shows that teenagers, more often than people of any other age, tend to follow their short-term impulses rather than pursuing long-term goals. Why do teenagers have so much difficulty controlling their impulses? And how does this get better as you get older? We studied the developing brain and found that controlling impulses depends on at least two different brain areas. As you grow older, connections between these two brain areas get stronger: this helps you think about the future consequences of your actions, be less impulsive, and (maybe) also make better decisions.