Some teens will take offense to the idea that they are losing their frontal gray matter - and the figure below suggests that white matter in the deep brain structures is actively increasing.
What it does mean is that a whole lot is going on in young growing brains. It would also seem to be an ideal time to organize growing connections by training attention and cognitive control.
The striatum is important for early learning, cognitive control, and reward. It also has a differential pattern of activation in individuals diagnosed with ADHD.
The more conclusive & evident proofs are still undergoing scientific experimentation about this theory. I wanna quote from a blog on The Teen's Brain, that "According to a psychiatrist, an adolescent who engages in more dangerous activities have white-matter pathways that seem to be more mature than those of risk-averse youths. White-matter is the brain’s wiring, the neutral pathways that connect the various gray-matter regions of the cerebrum that are independent of one another. Having a mature white-matter is necessary because it allows faster brain processing speed. Nerve impulses also travel faster in mature white-matter. Experiments also reveal that the more mature the look of the brain, the more adventurous the teenager tended to be."
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What it does mean is that a whole lot is going on in young growing brains. It would also seem to be an ideal time to organize growing connections by training attention and cognitive control.
The striatum is important for early learning, cognitive control, and reward. It also has a differential pattern of activation in individuals diagnosed with ADHD.
Teen Brain: Less Frontal Gray Matter or More White?
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Obsessions and the Will - Frontal-Striatal Circuits
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Deep Brain Structures (Striatum) Quickest to Learn?
Eide Neurolearning Blog: ADHD is Not a Simple Deficit Disorder