Richard Hogan: Acting on impulse is how teenagers learn

We now know the adolescent brain goes through a new phase of plasticity in which environmental factors can have major lasting effects on cortical circuitry

Richard Hogan: "So what can we do as parents? Well, we need to talk to them when they are calm, helping them to access better thinking while also understanding that making mistakes is all part of the adolescent journey." Picture: Moya Nolan.

Adolescent brain development is characterised by an imbalance between two very important brain systems; the limbic and reward systems, which mature earlier, and the not yet fully mature prefrontal control system. This imbalance, neuroscience suggests, is the neural substrate for the typical emotional reactive style of adolescence, and more significantly, promotes risky behaviour. 

Now, why in the world would the human brain develop like this? Why would logic and rational thinking develop after the emotional, reward and impulsive systems? Surely, it would make more sense for good thinking to develop first and then the impulse system to develop later.