Angry teens wired that way
Study finds region in brain linked to anger
Some teenagers are more aggressive and angrier compared to their peers, and this can be due to the size of their amygdalas. It is the little known region of the brain that has been pinpointed as a key determinant to the length and intensity of their tantrums.
Scans of adolescents brains showed that the bigger the amygdala, a region linked to anger, the bigger and more aggressive the rows with the parents are likely to be. Teenagers with smaller amygdalas are easier to deal with.
Children with the largest amygdalas displayed the “longest sustained aggressive behaviour,” Nicholas Allen, of the University of Melbourne in Australia, said. “Some of the behaviour of young adolescents isn’t driven simply by the environment. There’s also some biology involved.”
Human brains continue to develop into a person’s early twenties, and many of the inbuilt neural safeguards against losing their tempers have yet to be put in place.