Teenage brain...Was Snape vs. RW

[Jason]

No: HPFGUIDX 101453


> 

> 
> Off this thread a bit, but still somewhat appropriate, I find it 
> amusing that in my work, managing a library video collection, I 
just 
> this moment picked up a video entitled The Teenage Brain:  A World 
of 
> Their Own, with the following description:  
> 
> "Research has shown that during puberty, when the brain begins 
> teeming with hormones, the pre-frontal cortex, the center of 
> reasoning and impulse control, is still a work in progress."  
> 
> Hee.  I'm sure some would find that an apt description of our 
Harry?
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan


Funny you mention that. Today in a waiting room I read an 
interesting article in a May issue of Time. As I read through it I 
noticed myself continually thinking of HP and his mental issues so 
far and especially in OoP. Ill provide the link to the article but 
here are a few snippets....

"Before the imaging studies by Giedd and his collaborators at UCLA, 
Harvard, the Montreal Neurological Institute and a dozen other 
institutions, most scientists believed the brain was largely a 
finished product by the time a child reached the age of 
12....Giedd's scanning studies proved what every parent of a 
teenager knows: not only is the brain of the adolescent far from 
mature, but both gray and white matter undergo extensive structural 
changes well past puberty. "When we started," says Giedd, "we 
thought we'd follow kids until about 18 or 20. If we had to pick a 
number now, we'd probably go to age 25."

..and now the passage that threw our Harry into my head. (As a side 
note, I had my copy of OoP in the waiting room with me :-) )

"Now that MRI studies have cracked open a window on the developing 
brain, researchers are looking at how the newly detected 
physiological changes might account for the adolescent behaviors so 
familiar to parents: emotional outbursts, reckless risk taking and 
rule breaking, and the impassioned pursuit of sex, drugs and 
rock 'n' roll."

Emotional outbursts? Reckless risk taking? Rule breaking? Thats our 
Harry.


The article goes on with a lot of big words that I can't remember, 
and can't get to without subscribing to the Time website. As best as 
I can remember, the part of the brain that sets priorities and 
reasoning is among the last to mature.

Had Harry been a few years older, he may not have run off to the MoM.

The article also mentioned that around this time period of 
development a parent's cry of "because I said so" is no longer 
enough. The teens are less likely to do something doesn't make sense 
to them without a further understanding of why. Learn Occlumency 
because you say so? Why? Because you say isn't good enough anymore. 


Jason