The Sensitive Brains of Adolescence and Early Adulthood Led to The 2019 Algerian Protests (And Other Rights Movements)
When people talk about the 2019 Protests in Algeria, they often talk about youth engagement: “70% of the population is under 30, and it’s the young that are taking the lead in protest,” and “Youth are the force of change.” This fact is not a coincidence. All over the world, youth are responsible for protests, civil rights movements, and out-of-the-box innovative companies and products. It turns out, youth have different brain chemistry that inclines them for change-making (and a painful empathy.)
The Pre-Frontal Cortex, our last evolved part of the brain, doesn’t finish evolving until the late 20s. Late adolescents feel the most out of children and adults.
Risk-taking is highest in adolescents because dopamine activities are very exaggerated. Adolescent emotional highs are high and the lows are very low, to the point below 0. Because of the unfinished pre-frontal cortex, which regulates emotion. Adolescents, and late adolescents, in particular, love change-making while adults might be scared too rigid.
If an adolescent loses at a risk game where they could win money, they feel less than neutral, so they are prone to keep risking.
Adolescent brains are not half-cooked adult brains or part of the cooking of children's brains, adolescents have very sensitive dopamine systems, yet they have the same logical capabilities as adults. And because of their exaggerated feelings of rewards, punishments, and peer relations, adolescent empathy is incredibly painful: They don’t feel for someone’s pain, they feel as them, more than adults or children can.
With the search for dopamine is: Novelty-seeking.
“Novelty craving permeates adolescence; it is when we usually develop
our stable tastes in music, food, and fashion, with openness to novelty
declining thereafter. And it’s not just a human phenomenon. Across the
rodent life span, it’s adolescents who are most willing to eat a new food.” — Behave, 2016, Dr. Robert Sapolsky.
