The Reason For The Deviant Behavior Of Adolescents Has Been Found Out - Research

Scientists conducted the largest analytical study of deviant behavior in children and adolescents and found that a lack of gray matter in three specific brain regions is responsible for asociality and aggression.

Published in the American Medical Association's journal of psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, the study is based on the interpretation of the results of 13 experiments. Experts studied the brain tomography data of 394 adolescents with behavioral abnormalities and 350 children with average development. The analysis showed that aggressive or asocial-minded children have a significantly reduced amount of gray matter within the islet, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex.

Since the gray matter is used for processing information in the brain, and these three zones are important in decision-making, empathic response, emotional regulation and reading facial expressions, it becomes clear why such a deficit causes deviant behavior.

“We all know,” says one of the authors of the work, Dr. Stefan De Brito, “that aggressive and asocial behavior of adolescents leads not only to a similar way of living in the adult world, but also to alcoholism, drug addiction, mental and physiological problems. For this reason, it is necessary to find ways to prevent a decrease in gray matter levels in these areas of the brain."

The researchers state that they are only at the beginning of a multi-level study and they have yet to find out in the next stage, which social or neurobiological factors lead to a decrease in the amount of gray matter (whether it be pregnancy, or childhood abuse, for example).

Another author of the work, Dr. Jack Rogers, notes: "In the future, it will also be important to find those appropriate therapeutic methods that will positively affect the development of cognitive processes in adolescents, in order to avoid the negative consequences of the problem in adulthood."

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