Teen Brain: It's All About Me

It may be a "me first" world in the typical teen brain.Brain scans show that teen's brains may still be developing when it comes to sensitivity to other people's feelings.

And in a second study, the same researchers found that adolescents and preadolescents are slower at predicting how another person might feel in a given situation.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, PhD, of University College London, worked on the two studies.

"We think that a teenager's judgment of what they would do in a given situation is driven by the simple question: 'What would I do?'" Blakemore says, in a University College London news release.

"Adults, on the other hand, ask: "What would I do, given how I would feel and given how the people around me would feel as a result of my actions?'" she continues.

Blakemore presented the findings from the studies today in Norwich, England, at the BA Festival of Science, held by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.