Selfish Teens? Brain Scans Show Attention Shift From 'Me' To Others During Adolescence

LiveScience:

So he failed to hold the door for you -- he's a teen, what do you expect? Scientists and the average adult have known young adolescents to be selfish. With brain-scanning technology, researchers are now figuring out how most of these "delinquents" transform into respectable adults.

Read the whole story: LiveScience

Comments

[Fretslayer]

02:54 PM on 01/31/2011

Part of this behavior in teens is really simple to understand.

When you're a child you think with a more primitive part of your brain. It's why the world of a child is a basic one and as we age, our thoughts begin shifting from that location to the frontal lobe.

This tends to happen during teen years and is part of our going from child to adolescent to adult.

If we think of it in terms of a car... At this stage in our lives (and yes this means you (and me) too!) we are like a car with a giant gas pedal and a tiny brake pedal. It's why you see people in that age bracket doing some crazy and at times, dangerous things. It's why many of us (myself included) did as well.

In a normal (for lack of a better term) person, this is just a phase and as we mature and begin to use the frontal lobe, the egocentric behavior fades away.

[MikeDu]

04:33 PM on 01/30/2011

The genetic purpose behind obnoxious teens is to get the parents to kick them out of the family group so they will go off and start their own families. In the same way the ubiquitous 'momma grizzly' chases off her own offspring after they reach a certain age. Its telling at in most cases after the 'expulsion' takes place the 'obnoxious gene' soon switches itself off.

[Nicole Dixson]

11:35 AM on 01/29/2011

I am only willing to give my son a pass to the certain extent. Teen or not, blatant disrespect is not tolerated in my household.

[feyangel]

07:52 PM on 01/27/2011

Then there are those folks who never grow beyond "me! me! me!"

[comment from grandpa]

08:17 AM on 01/28/2011

They should amend the findings to read "for some"...........

[Fretslayer]

02:49 PM on 01/31/2011

It's called being 'egocentric' and all people go through it.
The thing though is that we grow out of it.
The people who do not grow out of it have 'issues'.

[feyangel]

07:51 PM on 01/27/2011

ha!

[french queen13]

06:19 PM on 01/27/2011

They needed a scan for this?