CPA…It’s Effect on the Human Brain

A recent study suggests that the way we use our brains when we look for information on a computer screen or cell phone screen is eroding our hardwired neuronal ability to recognize facial expressions in others. Researchers call the way we use our brains to scan for information on a screen, CPA, or Continuous Partial Attention. That’s not a good thing because facial recognition is the basis for empathy for one another. When we see another person’s expression, neurons called “Mirror Neurons” fire and we have a sense of what another person is feeling. Mirror Neurons  can help us retain our humanity.

The technology created to connect us on one level may be disconnecting us on another.

With headline news about teen violence, pregnancy rate, crime and suicide on the rise, one has to stop and wonder what’s going on with our teens. And it’s not just our teens. Educators say that they are seeing an enormous increase in children in kindergarten with less executive functioning than in previous years. That means the children have shorter attention spans, and less self-control among other things.

When Ford built the first car it was an amazing new way for people to travel faster and farther. But it wasn’t until the car had been around for years that people began to put rules about safety into place. I can’t help but wonder if we will one day have “text ed” for teens, much like drivers ed. At some point people realized people needed to be a certain age and trained to drive a car. It would serve our teens well to learn how to use technology respectfully. It would also do them well to have more face to face time.

Stats recently published claim one billion seconds a day are logged in on Facebook alone.

Our teens are digital natives. They have never known life without the technology that is new to most parents. We are still finding our way and understanding it’s impact on our world.

The teen brain already misreads facial expressions about 50% of the time because their brains haven’t fully matured. Teens make decisions with their limbic region of the brain. That’s the fight or flight area responsible for survival. Their prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain so to speak, doesn’t mature until the late twenties. Add that to the research suggesting that our technology use is eroding hardwired abilities to recognize expressions and it adds up to something we all need to pay attention to.

Parents can help their teens by engaging them in other activities besides texting, Youtube and other tech uses. Don’t let the computer or cell phone be your teens “babysitter.” Find ways to engage, play, laugh and be a healthy, happy family. Those things actually help the brain mature in an optimal way.

All best,

Dr. Jenn

Self-Control. Can Teens Learn It?

Teens are famous for being impulsive and difficult to live with. Blame it on their raging hormones, right?

 Not totally. Their brains play a role in the behavior we label as “typical teen.”

Teens  often use the limbic system of their brain, the area responsible for in the moment survival, rather than the prefrontal cortex, the “CEO” of the brain to make decisions. The prefrontal cortex doesn’t mature until the late twenties, so it’s not a conscious choice to use a less than stellar steering wheel for their lives.

One of the new buzz words from the neuroscience world is: executive functioning. It refers to the ability to order your thoughts, put things in your short term memory for future use, and to stay on task mentally, not something teens are able to do very well these days. (Many teachers are noticing that preschoolers are starting out their educational years with less executive functioning than previous students years past.) A recent New York Times article delved into a new solution for helping preschooler have more executive function and more self-control. Read the article here. That solution can help teens learn self-control as well.

The solution? Play! But not just any type of play, but rather dramatic, pretend play. Play has been stripped from our children’s lives at school and home and replaced with a heavy load of academics, organized sports and over scheduled lives. Play has gotten a bad rap as something silly, frivolous and without merit. Yet play is the womb for brain growth, happiness, innovation, stress regulation, and learning, among other wonderful things.

Teens aren’t keen to go back to playing dress-up-lets-pretend, (which is what helps little ones learn better) but they are, believe it or not, quite happy to use their imaginations and get their hands messy.  When given the chance to use their imagination to create, teens have a better chance to learn self-control.

The challenge for parents is to learn HOW to bring play back into their teens lives and how to play along with them at times. Even preschoolers need to be directed at how to play as it has been slowly removed from our culture so you can well imagine how challenging it is to bring play into the lives of our teens.

One place parents can learn more about the importance of play and how to add it to their daughters lives is at www.honorthegirl.me.  Part of the monthly subscription covers the topic of play.

As more scientists publish the positive benefits of play, and experts bemoan the loss of play in our lives, parents have the chance to learn more.

I’ll keep you posted about the latest reseach on play and how you can ues it to be a better parent, and how it can benefit your teen daughter.

All best,

Dr. Jenn

Teen Brains Make Lousy Decisions

Teen Brains Wired to Make Lousy Decisions

Ever scratch your head and wonder what your teen was thinking when they made a decision that was clearly going to have negative consequences? You saw the right choice; why couldn’t they? Read more