Keeping Your Prefrontal Cortex Online: Neuroplasticity, Stress and Meditation

As we go through life, our brain is always changing and adapting, say neuroscientists. During the first 18-20 years of life the brain is developing circuits that will form the basis of decision-making for a lifetime. Brain researchers have found that unhealthy lifestyles can inhibit normal brain development in adolescents and lead to impaired judgment and destructive behavior that carries over into adulthood. Traumatic experiences, alcohol and drug abuse, growing up neglected in a broken home, living in fear of violence and crime, or even a bad diet can interfere with development of the frontal lobes, the brain's executive system. This can cause behavioral problems. Brain researcher Dr. Fred Travis explains: "When a person's frontal lobes don't develop properly, he lives a primitive life. He doesn't -- and can't -- plan ahead. His world is simplistic, and he can only deal with what's happening to him right now. Thinking becomes rigid: 'You're either with me or against me,' or 'Me and my gang are good, and everyone else is bad.'"



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Source: Huffington Post