14 DAY TRIAL // We all had our differences with our parents while growing up, which concluded in fights and then long periods of awkward silence. No doubt, some of you have the same troubles with your teenage kids as well, when trying to impose your point of view in a civilized discussion. Seeking to explain why teens cannot easily accept other points of view, but they develop the capacity to when they grow a bit older, has been a long-term strive for scientists, who now think they may have identified the problem.
According to the latest research in the field, it seems that a part of the teenagers' brains, the medial prefrontal cortex, plays a major part in the difficulties kids experience grasping another point of view. This area of the brain is constantly developing throughout infancy, childhood, up until early adulthood, and its degree of development is crucial for the little ones' abilities to grasp what their parents are saying to them, and to accept other people's beliefs.
The newest study on the matter, led by cognitive neuroscientist Iroise Dumontheil, from the University College London (UCL), in the UK, brings hope to parents experiencing a great deal of difficulty in getting their point across to their children. The paper says that this ability of the medial prefrontal cortex, or lack thereof, improves with the passing of time, and that it's biologically natural for youngsters to behave in this way. In other words, it's not their fault that they cannot be reasoned with, the research holds.
"You probably first need to have the idea that somebody has a different spatial perspective and then you can move onto higher thoughts," Dumontheil states. She argues that brain scans have revealed a great deal of stress on the brain while teens have been struggling to comprehend an outside opinion, in terms of processes and areas involved. It's only after this critical age that they can successfully master the ability to incorporate and account for other people's viewpoints in their line of thought, an ability known as "theory of the mind."
"What is really new and amazing about this paper, is that they show that adolescents show strong egocentric behaviour that is very similar to that of young children," University of Chicago cognitive psychologist Boaz Keysar adds.