The myth of the invulnerable adolescent

Is a myth that adolescents are considered invulnerable. Studies show that adolescents of 12 or 13 years tend to overestimate rather than underestimate the real danger of their possible acts. It is not that they are created invulnerable to the danger they perceive, but that the reward-punishment systems are not fully adjusted.

Therefore, when making decisions, they give more weight to the benefits than to the risks. They expect much more joy and pleasure than a situation can provide.

Risk behaviors in adolescents

Among adolescents with risk behaviors, there are Reckless after deliberation Y reckless reckless.


1. Reckless teenagers after the release. The vast majority of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 belong to the first type. They rationally weigh the advantages and disadvantages, but the benefits they hope to achieve far outweigh the disadvantages.

2. Adolescentsl reckless reactive. They reason impulsively provoked by the temptation to look good in front of others. They are tied to compromised situations, often against their own good judgment. They are able to enroll in bets up to the Russian roulette, or drive in the opposite direction, etc., to earn the esteem or overvaluation of the components of your group.


Balance risks / benefits: the emotional temperature

A truthful information about the real benefits that can be obtained from reckless behaviors allows them to reduce reward expectations rationally and record in their memory what really entails damage. A good warning about the attractiveness of those benefits that they think they would obtain reduces the chances of temptation, since it allows them to self-commit at the limits of their own field of action to protect themselves from imprudence. More than trusting that they will learn in the school of life, it is necessary to agree without giving up some rules of conduct whose limits for each age are insurmountable.


In the pack of commitment with themselves can not miss or the essential ingredient of promotion of sports, artistic hobbies, contact with nature, etc. And neither are the ambitious goals that are encouraged with admiration towards those who give a positive image of generous behavior, who risk for others. The attractiveness of those lives teaches.

The brain: the reward processes the pleasant sensations

The brain houses a strategic system formed by several areas, multiple connections between different neurons that form various routes or circuits, and chemical messengers, which contribute to providing happy experiences. Three of the pathways use dopamine for signal transmission.

1. In a pleasant situation, as it can be the risk of a situation, the central station, the nucleus accumbens, receives the dopamine, from one of the factories of production, the ventral tegmental area. The neurons in this area have an enormous number of terminations, which allow hundreds of thousands of synapses with those of the central station, which have receptors for dopamine.

2. The neurons of the central station are activated, consult with the central evaluation, the amygdala, the predictable reward and send the message of gratitude to the prefrontal cortex where it is weighed, options are compared and the answer to the gratifying stimulus is decided.

3. Learning and memory are motivated and basic needs are rewarded, such as feeding through taste stimuli.

4. The system also consists of a control that allows maintaining the balance between apathy and euphoria. It consists of regulating the doses of dopamine and the time that remains in the space of the synapse between the neurons in the central station. It is used to inhibit its release from the neurons of the production factory and to recapture it inside after having released it.

How is the cost / benefit calculation made of a risk situation?

The central brain of the brain-located in the ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal region of the left hemisphere-subtracts the costs of the expected benefits provided by the reward system. The net value of the difference is accumulated in the data record - intraparietal groove of both hemispheres - in the time until the person decides to accept or reject a pleasurable option.

Natalia López Moratalla. Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Video: Vulnerability as a key to confidence. A story of resilience | Imad Elabdala | TEDxUppsalaUniversity


Interesting Articles

Correct and know how to wait

Correct and know how to wait

Man needs to be corrected. There are things that one does without realizing and others, realizing. An uncorrected person is a person not valued. If we want someone to fail completely as a person, all...

The danger of excess duties for children

The danger of excess duties for children

Each evening upon arriving home after several hours of class, and those corresponding to extracurricular activities, our children face homework. With hardly any time between activities and bath time...