Meghan Holohan
Puberty Makes You Stupid
by Meghan Holohan - March 30, 2010 - 4:10 PM


Even though the negative consequences of sexting are well known, teenagers still text naked pictures to their peers. To many adults, this seems stupid—like the hundreds of other things teens do. Before yelling at your teen for her stupidity, you might want to consider new findings that show puberty makes teens stupid.

Well, teenage mice.

Researchers at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center—led by Sheryl Smith—devised a complex task that required mice to learn how to avoid a moving platform, which delivered a mild shock. Understanding such a skill is higher-order learning, which takes multiple attempts to grasp. Smith says that both prepubescent and post-pubescent mice quickly mastered the obstacle, while pubescent mice struggled to overcome the barrier.

Changes that occur in the hippocampus during puberty negatively impact the brain’s ability to remember and integrate learning. Such changes affect GABA neurotransmitters, which work to sedate the neurosystem. During puberty, female mice undergo a 700 percent increase in GABA receptors, which calm the nervous system except when the mice are stressed out. In teenage mice, this receptor keys up nerves and raises anxiety. As the mice aged, the receptors decreased— Smith and her colleagues realized these receptors make it difficult for the mice to learn.

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Comments (13)

  1. this should be a well-known fact by now. also, should we really let these folks drive before we are sure they are post-pubescent?? we KNOW we should not let them be in charge of their own genitalia…

    posted by Melinda on 3-30-2010 at 4:48 pm

  2. In other related news… Ricky Martin is gay, the sky is blue, water is wet…

    I’m gonna file this discovery under “duh”

    posted by Troy H. on 3-30-2010 at 5:33 pm

  3. lol the ad on this page is about a place for girls who have substance abuse issues -___-

    recaptcha: lemmerz of
    lemmerz of what?

    posted by mai on 3-30-2010 at 8:09 pm

  4. Wow sarcasm much people…I find your blogs very interesting and while I know teenagers are stupid after being one and teaching hundreds of others I find that understanding why we are who we are very helpful.

    posted by Colleen on 3-30-2010 at 8:51 pm

  5. Well, I’m experiencing puberty and I’m not stupid.

    posted by Karl on 3-30-2010 at 10:19 pm

  6. I’m with Karl. I’m a teen and make great decisions. Mental progeria maybe?

    posted by Leo on 3-30-2010 at 11:42 pm

  7. It is not just changes in the GABA system. The brain goes thru a general pruning of the neurons in puberty. Just like you would prune a fruit tree before its growth spurt in the spring. So all those tiny suckers and twigs are trimmed leaving good hearty branches. Except some info was in those neurons that got pruned so in some ways teens actually get stupider for a time.

    posted by drHoward on 3-31-2010 at 2:04 am

  8. I’m on the pro-teen-intelligence bandwagon for the next 27 days. Then I’ll be of the opinion that they are as dumb as a box of rocks.

    posted by Patrick on 3-31-2010 at 2:53 am

  9. Karl, Leo, I’m afraid you actually ARE stupid, but it will take you another five years to realize it.

    Don’t worry, I have the same problem. Most people do.

    posted by Graeme on 3-31-2010 at 3:08 am

  10. ‘Changes that occur in the hippocampus during puberty negatively impact the brain’s ability to remember and integrate learning.’

    Cool, just when the kids go to school and learn for their future.

    posted by kd on 3-31-2010 at 6:45 am

  11. Those of you in the late teens shouldn’t be so hard on yourselves. My kids are 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18 and 20. The way I see it, puberty is pretty much over by 15 or 16. Then you’re an adult-in-training. The younger ones are in chemical hell, sleeping and eating and in a bad mood 24/7.

    The reason we teach kids to drive at 16 is so we can supervise and help them for a while before they leave home. The same for dating.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 3-31-2010 at 9:58 am

  12. Teachers and schools have been using this information to shape curricula for awhile now. As a high school teacher, we recently implemented a transition course to help our freshmen (generally ages 14 or 15) into the high school environment. “Young teens” are subjected to a great deal of instability as they mature, this leads to much less academically stressful material being taught at that time – yes, we still teach them, but proportionally they learn less content during this time. We then ramp it up. I believe this is why so many schools teach well beyond what our parents learned – we’ve learned when to push our students and when to ease up to get the most out of them.

    posted by Daphne on 3-31-2010 at 10:09 am

  13. This helps me understand why every older generation thinks the teen generation is stupid, among other things.

    What they’re missing is that they were stupid too when they were teens.

    Glad to know it’s just a phase for most of us!

    posted by Katie Rose on 3-31-2010 at 2:47 pm

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