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Journal of Adolescent Research http://jar.sagepub.com/

The Gift and the Trap: Working the ' 'Teen Brain ' ' Into Our Concept of Youth
Howard Sercombe Journal of Adolescent Research 2010 25: 31 DOI: 10.1177/0743558409353065 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jar.sagepub.com/content/25/1/31

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The Gift and the Trap: Working the “Teen Brain” Into Our Concept of Youth
Howard Sercombe1

Journal of Adolescent Research 25(1) 31–47 © The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0743558409353065 http://jar.sagepub.com

Abstract Progressive developments in scanning technologies over the last decade have led to a surge of new research into the structure and function of the brain and into differences between the brains of teenagers and other adults. This work has not been free of controversy, notably around the question of deficits in the capacity of young people concerning risk-taking behavior. In a previous article, Michael Males mounted a challenge to this body of work, arguing that it exaggerated the propensity of young people to take risks and ignored the impact of external contextual and sociological factors. In responding to Males’s article, this article not only supports his concern about deficit models of adolescence but also explores the way that the new brain science takes us beyond the century-old binary between biological determinism

Citations: http://jar.sagepub.com/content/25/1/31.refs.html >> Version of Record - Dec 7, 2009 What is This? Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013 The Gift and the Trap: Working the “Teen Brain” Into Our Concept of Youth University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013 The Gift:The Fracture Is in Our Thinking, Not the Reality Males (2009) is critical of the biological determinist (that is, essentialist) assumptions of the new brain science Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013 Sercombe 35 populations as diverse as musicians (Gaser & Schlaug, 2003; Sluming et al., 2002), London taxi drivers (Maguire et al., 2000), and people who are bilingual (Mechelli et al., 2004) Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013 36 Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013 Sercombe Brain Science and Our Conception of Youth This is, perhaps, where Males (2009) overreaches Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013 38 Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013 Sercombe 39 Some researchers also believe that the apparent reduction in the amount of grey matter is due to “synaptic pruning” (Thompson et al., 2000) Downloaded from jar.sagepub.com at DEPAUL UNIV LIBRARIES on January 18, 2013