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Last year, I was introduced to a fellow Sussex academic, Dr. Liat Levita, who is a Reader in Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience and runs the Developmental Affective Neuroscience lab in the School of Psychology. Liat had the most accessible, enthusiastic and compassionate way of explaining adolescent development in the context of neuroscience and it really stuck with me.

As a social work academic, I’ve always been steeped in the literature on human development but tended to shy away from neuroscience because - as a non-expert in this field- it’s easy to get wrong. Too often I’ve seen people try and reduce our wonderfully complex brains to simple, colourful quadrants on a chart, or metaphors (usually animals). Shortly after meeting Liat, I invited her to join me in developing a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) workshop on adolescents and neuroscience- with a particular focus on how advances in neuroscience might help us better support and address the safety needs of young people at risk of significant harm. I learned a lot from hearing her talk, and here are a few thoughts I’m still pondering.

First, Liat reminded us that the prefrontal cortex—the brain region responsible for critical thinking, planning, and self-regulation—continues to develop throughout adolescence and into early adulthood. At the same time, subcortical regions, including the amygdala and striatum, show heightened responsiveness to emotional and social stimuli. This developmental imbalance between a still-maturing prefrontal cortex and highly reactive subcortical regions helps explain why teens often:

• Experience both positive and negative emotions more intensely than adults; what may appear as “overreactions” is typical.
• Make comments or behave in ways adults may deem inappropriate.
• Are highly sensitive to peers, with heightened self-awareness and strong responses to perceived social threats.
• May struggle with planning and long-term decision-making.
• Understand negative consequences of certain actions but do it anyway, particularly in socially charged situations.

When we are prepared for, and expect these things, we can give more space and grace when we observe and engage with teens, because they are a normal part of growth into adulthood.

Liat spoke about the unique sensitivity of adolescent brains to chemicals like: 1) dopamine, the chemical important for goal directed behaviour and motivation, and 2) oxytocin, the chemical linked to social rewards and social bonding. These may impact how teens show greater sensation seeking and risk-taking and be more motivated by social feedback and peer interactions. In my own research, this felt like such an important and challenging issue to contend with- as it is so difficult to know the boundaries of healthy, normative risk-taking when working with a young person who might be taking healthy risks alongside ‘unhealthy’ or physically dangerous ones.

So much more was covered in those three hours, but as with each of our practice-focussed CPD workshops, we wanted people to leave with some things they might be able to apply to their own professional practice right away. From Liat’s work I was left with a new understanding of why it is important to model self-regulation for teens, especially in the face of stress; I was reminded that asking teens questions like ‘why would you do that?!’ can be unhelpful, particularly when I could choose instead to model thoughtful decision-making, by asking teens for help to understand their though process, and to explore- together- the contexts of safety and unsafety that teens find themselves within (instead of jumping to conclusions about what is/is not safe for them).

This workshop was so well-received that we’re offering it again this year on the 17^th March. Social workers, youth workers, creative practitioners, teachers, health and mental health professionals- alongside any other professionals working with young people- are all welcome! In the meantime here is a link to some of Liat’s work if you are interested in exploring it further.

Witten by Professor Kristine Langhoff from the School of Education and Social Work.

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