Have you ever wondered why teenagers are known to act out? A study done at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York city proved that teenagers are more likely to act impulsively in a fight or flight situation. The experiment was done with 83 different people with ages ranging from 6-29. The people aged 13-17 were more likely to impulsively push a button they weren’t supposed to then any other age group. Why? Scientists came to the conclusion that the orbital frontal cortex peaked in teenage brains when they did not push the button–which suggested that this region controls the impulse to react.

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During adolescence, the teenage brain undergoes its second “pruning process“, which directly explains the findings of the scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College. Before puberty, the teenage brain has a huge growth spurt in the frontal lobe which deals with planning, impulse control, and reasoning. The adolescent brain is not used to the new things it can do because it is learning–which is why teenagers tend to act out and not make the correct decisions.