Teen Aggression May Really Be a State of Mind/For those of us with teens

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Teen Aggression May Really Be a State of Mind

Published: 02/26/08

TUESDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) -- For parents of emotionally combative

teens, new research offers a powerful biological reason for all the family

feuding -- adolescent brain size.

A team of Australian scientists has found that when key regions of the brain

known for controlling emotions are bigger, boys and girls tend to be more

aggressive and more persistent during their fights with Mom and Dad.

" This is a bit of a unique study, " said study author , an

associate professor with the Orygen Research Centre at the University of

Melbourne. " Because we've shown for the first time that in terms of aggression

-- not physical, but being argumentative and unfriendly -- some of the

differences in the way teen kids interact with parents are biologically based.

The adolescent is developing, their brain is developing, and there's a link

between the two. "

The finding was published in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences.

The authors first videotaped 20-minute " problem-solving " discussions with 137

Australian teens between the ages of 11 and 14 and one of their parents. The

interactions were spurred on by the introduction of provocative family issues,

and analyzed for language and emotional content.

Following MRI scans of the teens' brains, and his colleagues observed

that children with large amygdala regions were more likely to engage in longer

and more aggressive arguments with their parents.

They also reported that male -- but not female -- teens possessing an atypical

unevenness in the size of two left brain regions -- the anterior cingulate

cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex -- were also more likely to maintain

aggressive behavior, as well as whiny and anxiety-laced behavior (collectively

referred to as dysphoria).

In an attempt to explain gender variations in left-right brain asymmetry,

noted that left- and right-side brain regions are normally different in

size, but that such differences are typically bigger in boys than girls.

" We think that when the difference is actually less than it usually is among

boys -- but not girls -- this contributes to some mental health problems and,

perhaps, aggressiveness, " he said.

" But there's relatively little research -- almost none -- that shows a

relationship between brain structure and actual behavior, " added. " So we

can't say what the direction of causation is. It could be that environment has

influenced teen brain structure. Or that brain structure is influencing their

relationship behavior with the parents. Or it could be both. More and more, I

think we are realizing that it's not a matter of a simple equation. It's a

question of an interaction of both environment and biology. But we don't yet

know how these two areas interact. "

Elliott Albers, director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia

State University in Atlanta, agreed that many key questions remain.

" This study is very interesting and consistent with prior animal studies which

support the concept that there are changes in limbic structures that can

potentially relate to aggression, " he said.

" However, we still don't know if conflict causes physical changes -- whether

the social experiences of boys and girls cause different changes in their limbic

system that can affect aggression -- or whether it's the other way around.

ly, we still don't know much about what causes the neuroscience of

aggression, " Albers said.

More information

For more on the adolescent brain, visit Bryn Mawr College.

Last reviewed: 02/26/2008 | Last updated: 02/26/2008