“simply put, the teen brain is not the adult brain,” said sion harris, the co-director of the center for adolescent substance abuse research at boston children’s hospital.
“through adolescence into the mid-20s, our brain gradually strengthens our ability to self-reflect, organize towards goals, plan out steps towards those goals, and perhaps more importantly, inhibit impulses that aren’t the wisest and regulate emotions – basically, things we would associate with a mature adult,” harris explained.
“i talk to parents all the time and say, ‘you still need to be (your teens’) prefrontal cortex during this time,’ ” harris said.
marisa silveri is a professor of psychiatry and a neuroscientist at boston’s mclean hospital and harvard medical school, who focuses on adolescent brain development, specifically risk factors for substance abuse. “while there are no published neuroimaging studies on fentanyl and the teen brain, we can see from research on oxycodone that these opioids decrease the connectivity in the prefrontal cortex and alter the thickness of the cortex,” silveri said.
therein lies the vicious cycle: adolescents have a still-developing prefrontal cortex, which can facilitate drug-seeking behaviour. the drug then alters the development of this area of the brain.