Blame My Brain: the Amazing Teenage Brain Revealed

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During the teenage years the brain is undergoing its most radical and fundamental change since the age of two.

Blame My Brain was first published in 2005 and updated in 2007, 2013 and 2022. It was shortlisted for the Aventis prize for science-writing and is internationally acclaimed. Over 100,000 copies have been sold since publication and it has been translated into many languages. Writing Blame My Brain changed me. I didn’t mean it to. It has changed other adults who have read it, too. Quite simply, it has changed the way we react to and think about teenagers. It also changed my career, as I now travel worldwide to discuss the implications of this and my later books on adolescent wellbeing. The current period of social restriction due to the Covid-19 pandemic is difficult for all of us in different ways. For teenagers, there are some specific pressures which can make this period of isolation from friends and school even more challenging. Stay calm and connected to your teen as much as you can, even in the face of confusing signals from them. We’re hard wired to mirror others so the more you stay calm, the more your teen will model this Scientists have discovered that our brains physically change in response to our experiences throughout our lives, with the teenage years being a time of significant brain change. This means there is a great opportunity to learn and develop new skills and knowledge, and to become more ‘expert’ at some things. There are also things which become more challenging during the teen years, and it can be helpful to understand why.

It was shortlisted for the 2006 Royal Society's Aventis Prize for Science Books. About This Edition ISBN: Greater care when referring to mental health issues. For example, in the fictional intro to the chapter on emotions, I show Matt referring approvingly to Kurt Cobain’s death by suicide and Matt’s mother being worried by the doodle of nooses in the margin of his essay. I completely removed these references in the new edition. Another example of this extra care is that, in the chapter on the risks of alcohol, I also include an extra paragraph of reassurance, in case a reader has already been involved in this. Another example is where I’m talking about schizophrenia and in the list of symptoms I refer to “having strange beliefs” and “seeing/hearing/smelling things that are not there” and I have changed those to “having beliefs that seem very strange to others” and “seeing/hearing/smelling things that other people do not”, which are more respectful and less dogmatic.

Nicola Morgan has that rare gift of being able to communicate science and make it fun. She brings the biology of the brain to the general reader in a way that will not only educate but entertain.” (Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Department of Developmental Psychopathology, Cambridge University)I’ve already written a whole book on this – The Teenage Guide to Life Online– so it at least needs a chapter in Blame My Brain! And I explain it in the context of the human drive to being social and making connections with other humans. Nicola Morgan has that rare gift of being able to communicate science and make it fun.” Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, University of Cambridge My qualifications

I cannot use my hands at the same time as talking, so I can’t drive, make tea, type or put make-up on unless I stop talking. Seriously. Humour is a really helpful tool in de-escalating situations. This needs to be judged carefully and without sarcasm

spontaneous joy and hilarity (Do I ever laugh as heartily as in a classroom full of adolescent stand up comedians?) Maintaining positive and constructive relationships with teenagers is crucial. These relationships may not always feel fulfilling, and you and they may often find yourselves disagreeing and having arguments. However, even though it might not feel like it, communicating with your teenager that you care and are available for them will significantly increase the likelihood of them leaning on you at times of difficulty. Such relationships also provide the foundations for you to be able to talk to them about the following issues: Whether you are a stressed-out teenager or a frustrated parent/carer, the following information will explain some confusing behaviours and give you hints that might help everybody to cope better in during the current restrictions. This guide will also be helpful for staff working with teenagers when returning to school. For links to the main available pieces of research behind this book, see here. I read vastly more than you will see there but not everything I read is publicly available.

Watch some of the videos that we have included, so you’ve got a shared understanding of the teenage brain and behaviours

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Adolescence covers an age range of approximately 11 to 18 years. The first change early in adolescence is that teenage brains undertake a major period of growth and restructuring. Lots of new connections are made between the cells in the brain. This means there is lots of potential for new learning – this is why it’s easier to learn new knowledge and skills when you are a teenager than when you are an adult. Later on, those connections which are not being used regularly get ‘pruned’. This means that the connections that are not used die away while the ones which are used regularly remain and get stronger. So, if we don’t continue to practise skills, we can lose them. After reading about the incident, participants were asked to rate Scarrow's blameworthiness and how long he should be incarcerated for his transgressions. To make sure that responses reflected participants' views concerning retributive punishment, they were asked to recommend the length of a jail sentence that would follow a fully effective program of rehabilitation, and were additionally told that the length of the sentence would have no effect on deterring future crimes.