如果你发现你的孩子总是对你的情感置之不理，那很可能是因为他们还不能那样做。思维方式会随着年龄而变化，尽管青少年和成年人对同样的问题都能做出了相近的反应，但是他们的大脑活跃性却完全不同；成年人却总是能够更快的计算出他们的行为将会如何的影响他们自身以及他们周围的一些人，而青少年在这方面比较欠缺。-

如果你发现你的孩子总是对你的感觉置之不理，那很可能是因为他们还不能那样做。

最新研究表示，大脑同高级思维、同情心、罪恶感相关的区域在青少年时期还未被完全的开发。当涉及到行为时，位于大脑前方的额页皮质，青少年不如成年人的活跃。

“思考策略随着年龄变化”，伦敦大学认知神经研究中心的Sarah-Jayne Blakemore说，”当你长大后对行为做决定时，你的大脑链接和青少年做同样决定时或多或少有相同的地方，但是最重要的不一样就是大脑的分管区域由后部(当你还是年轻人的时候)转移到了前部(当你是成年人的时候)。

青少年的思维

在研究中，青少年和成年人被问及他们将如何对这些特定的情景做出反应，并同时对他们的大脑进行成像记录。

结果发现，尽管青少年和成年人对同样的问题都做出了相近的反应，但是他们的大脑活跃性却完全不同，成年人的大脑额页中部皮质比青少年更加的活跃。青少年在同通过上一行为预测将来行为相关的颞上回回间沟活跃性却要更高一些。成年人却总是能够更快的计算出他们的行为将会如何的影响他们自身以及他们周围的一些人。

“我们总是通过类似于:我应该怎么做？这样简单的问题来判断青少年在特定情景中的行为。”Blakemore说：”另一方面，成年人却问：”我应该怎么做？这样做的结果会给我带来什么样的感受？带给我身边的人什么样的感受？”

敏感性的发展

孩子从5岁左右起就开始考虑其它人的感受，但是最新的研究表明，这个能力的发展要远远超过这个年龄。

同时，敏感性除了同大脑相关区域的发展结果有关外，成年人在社会交往中所获得的经验也伴演着至关重要的作用。

“不管原因是什么，可以很清楚的是，青少年的处理方式不仅仅是同荷尔蒙技术的变化相关，同时也和神经中枢的变化相关。”Blakemore说：”这些变化并不是在0-18岁间随着年龄的增长而逐步稳定的变化的，他们像喷泉一般突然袭来，青春期是最具有戏剧性的一个发展阶段。

原文：

Study: Why Teens Don’t Care

By Sara Goudarzi

LiveScience Staff Writer

posted: 07 September 2006 05:33 pm ET

If you ever sense that your teenager is not taking your feelings intoaccount, it’s probably because they’re just incapable of doing so.The area of the brain associated with higher-level thinking, empathy, andguilt is underused by teenagers, reports a new study. When considering an action, the teenage medial refrontal cortex, located in front of the brain, just doesn’t get as much action as adults.

“Thinking strategies change with age,” said Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. “As you get older you use more or less the same brain network to make decisions about your actions as you did when you were a teenager, but the crucial difference is that the distribution of that brain activity shifts from the back of the brain (when you are a teenager) to the front (when you are an adult).”

Teen thinking

In the study, teens and adults were asked how they would react to certain situations while their brains were being imaged. Although both adults and teens responded similarly to the questions, their brain activity differed. The medial prefrontal cortex was much more active in the adults than in the teens. However, the teenagers had much more activity in the superior temporal sulcus, the brain area involved in predicting future actions based on previous ones.

Adults were also much faster at figuring out how their actions would affect themselves and other people.

“We think that a teenager’s judgment of what they would do in a given situation is driven by the simple question: ‘What would I do?’” Blakemore said.

” Adults, on the other hand, ask: ‘What would I do, given how I would feel and given how the people around me would feel as a result of my actions?’”

Developing sensitivity

Children start taking into account other people’s feelings around the age of five. But the ability develops well beyond this age, the new research suggests.

And while some of this sensitivity could be the result of undeveloped regions in the brain, the experience that adults acquire from social interactions also plays an important role.

“Whatever the reasons, it is clear that teenagers are dealing with, not only massive hormonal shifts, but also substantial neural changes,” Blakemore said. “These changes do not happen gradually and steadily between the ages of 0-18. They come on in great spurts and puberty is one of the most dramatic developmental stages.”

The results of the study were presented today at the BA Festival of Science in the UK.