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Smoking and Adolescent Brain Development
When it comes to substance abuse like smoking or abuse of intoxicating drugs, it is very difficult to determine what a “safe” limit of exposure is. Quite often, the initial exposure to mood altering substances like nicotine occurs during the teenage years. The period of adolescence is marked by a tendency towards risk-taking behavior which often results in ‘experimental’ exposure to psychedelic substances. Adolescents who tend to flirt with danger in this fashion are often convinced that a small trial will not actually have lasting damaging effects. However, research on the development of prefrontal cortex in similarly age-matched animals says otherwise.
via Smoking and Adolescent Brain Development | Brain Blogger.
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2 Responses to Smoking and Adolescent Brain Development
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Imogen says:
So what they are saying is that if you have 1 cigarette your more likely to become addicted? I would think that there are a lot of other factors that contribute to this.
Plasticity of the brain and working memory are significant factors during the develeopment of adolescent brains. Sleep depravtion due to social media and gaming also play a part in the development of the cerebral cortex. Me thinks the doctor is touting for research dollars to continue studies into what we have enough knowledge about already.