'Finally, a book about the adolescent brain written by someone who actually does the science! Highly readable, ground-breaking' Professor Laurence Steinberg
Why does an easy child become a challenging teenager? Why do teenagers struggle to get up in the morning? Why do they often take excessive risks?
We often joke that teenagers dont have brains. For some reason, its socially acceptable to mock people in this stage of their lives. The need for intense friendships, the excessive risk taking and the development of many mental illnesses depression, addiction, schizophrenia begin during these formative years, so what makes the adolescent brain different?
Drawing upon her cutting-edge research in her London laboratory, award-winning neuroscientist, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore explains what happens inside the adolescent brain, what her teams experiments have revealed about our behaviour, and how we relate to each other and our environment as we go through this period of our lives. She shows that while adolescence is a period of vulnerability, it is also a time of enormous creativity one that should be acknowledged, nurtured and celebrated.
Our adolescence provides a lens through which we can see ourselves anew. It is fundamental to how we invent ourselves.
'Beautifully written with clarity, expertise and honesty about the most important subject for all of us. I couldnt put it down'Robert Winston
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. She has published over 120 papers in scientific journals, and won multiple major awards for her research, including the ?British Psychological Society Spearman Medal 2006, the Turin Young Mind&Brain Prize 2013, the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award 2013 and the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize 2015. She was named inThe TimesYoung Female Power List 2014 and was one of only four scientists on theSunday Times100 Makers of the 21st Century 2014. Professor Blakemore ?has two sons ?and lives in Hertfordshire.Inventing Ourselvesis her first solo book.
