Want to understand your adolescent? Get to know their brain

Want to understand your adolescent? "I want people to understand that adolescence is not a disease, that adolescence is an amazing time of development," says Beatriz Luna, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh. Sponsor Message "Adolescence is a time when the brain says, 'All right, you've had a lot of time now, we have to start making some decisions,'" Luna says Decisions like which connections to get rid of. "There's something really charming about the chimps when they're going through this adolescent period," says Alexandra Rosati, an associate professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Michigan. "They're going through this physical change in the body and those same hormones are resculpting the brain, basically, during this period," Rosati says.