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Why do teenagers find learning a drag? Jessica Hamzelou helps us to understand why in today’s New Scientist
Being a teenager can be a drag. As if dealing with peer pressure and raging hormones weren’t hard enough, your ability to learn new things is also reduced. Now the brain molecules behind this learning deficit have been identified in mice – and blocked.
When children hit puberty, their ability to learn a second language drops, they find it harder to learn their way around a new location and they are worse at detecting errors in cognitive tests.
Why is this? Sheryl Smith and her colleagues at the State University of New York now reckon that all of these behavioural changes could be due to a temporary increase in a chemical receptor that inhibits brain activity in an area responsible for learning.Link to read full article
Source:New Scientist
