What do we know exactly about the functioning of the brain? How do our brains change? What is the effect of social media and the abundance of choice for the teenage brain?

Our brain plays a crucial role in all of the things we do, the way we interact with other people (in real life and online), the problems we try to solve. This seems pretty obvious, but to be able to visualize and follow such tasks has been enabled by the recent introduction of various neuroimaging techniques. Such techniques are now used to understand how children and young people learn and develop. How young people think, experience emotions and perceive other people's intentions can be understood by studying their neurological, cognitive, affective and social development.

Young people nowadays are constantly gathering, sharing and engaging through a constant stream of information. A great deal of their day-to-day lives, interaction, learning and validation occurs through online platforms and social media. At the same time, children, teenagers and adolescents are confronted with numerous decisions that will define both their present and future lives.

Eveline Crone will lead you through the development of the brain among teenagers and adolescents, all seen within the pressures of our modern times; such as social media and difficulties of making decisions. Recent developments from cognitive and neurological research will be discussed. Here, it becomes even more evident that adolescence, the transition phase to adulthood, is a time full of risks -and- opportunities.

Photo: Thomas Schulz, University of Utah, Wikimedia Commons