A Neuroscience Perspective for Working With Children and Adolescents
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A GLIMPSE INTO NEUROSCIENCE- INFORMED PRACTICE
Understanding how the brain works can take dedicated time . Following are three concepts that we think are likely to be helpful to CMHCs , rather than overwhelming or overly technical : the process of myelination , imbalance theory , and chronic stress .
The Process of Myelination
An important part of the nervous system is myelin , a lipid-rich material that covers the axon of nerve cells ( neurons ). The axons are somewhat like the wires of the nerve cell , transmitting electrical charges throughout the cell . When cells are first developed , they are not yet myelinated ( i . e ., a myelin sheath does not yet cover the axon ). We call these unmyelinated cells gray matter . Over time , the process of myelination occurs , and the cell develops the fatty myelin sheath that protects the outside of the axon . These myelinated cells are called white matter .
Myelination is important to understanding childhood development . When an electrical charge is created within a cell through neurotransmission ( e . g ., enough positively charged ions enter the cell via the dendrites , creating an action potential ), this charge is transmitted from one neuron to the next , eventually resulting in action potential . During this process , the electrical charge must pass through the axon . In an unmyelinated cell , the charge is transmitted fairly slowly through the axon and consumes a lot of energy within the cell . However , in a myelinated cell , this process occurs more rapidly and uses 2,500 times less energy !
This is directly observable in infant behavior . For example , the movements of infants are very slow when they reach for an object to grab it . As infants mature , their nerve cells increasingly myelinate , and they become able to reach and grab more quickly and more accurately , as messages are sent more quickly through motor neurons in their peripheral nervous system .
The process of myelination occurs at different trajectories in the nervous system , with the peripheral nervous system myelinating first . This process within the prefrontal structures can continue until individuals reach their mid-20s . The differing pace of myelination helps us understand why children and adolescents often have sensory and motor development that outpace their executive functioning . This out-of-sync pacing is associated with the challenges children and adolescents experience in emotional regulation , frustration tolerance , planned behavior , and the selection of long-term benefits over short-term rewards .
Thom likes to share an example of his ( then ) 3-year-old child . When Thom is cooking dinner in the late afternoon , his child begins hounding Thom for snack foods . The child ’ s sensory system is activated by the smells of food cooking , and these smells generate a sense of hunger within him . Because his child ’ s prefrontal structures are still underdeveloped , their ability to regulate their hunger impulse through top-down prefrontal control ( e . g ., “ I can wait because we will be eating dinner soon ”) is not as developed as it is in adults . Caregiver attempts to help delay gratification is often futile and less productive than providing some aspects of the meal early ( a piece of fruit , for example ) to allay the child ’ s hunger pangs until dinner .
As many of us know from personal experience , reprimanding a child for loudly requesting a snack is not likely to be productive — in fact it most often increases the stress levels of everyone involved . When the child ’ s sensory system is inevitably activated the very next evening when dinner is being cooked , the child may again struggle to regulate their hunger impulses regardless of having been reprimanded by caregivers the previous day . The counseling implications here are important . Caregivers can be informed about their child ’ s difficulty regulating hunger impulses and directed to provide the child with either a suitable distraction ( by , for example , involving the child in helping to prepare dinner , if age-appropriate ) or a low-calorie appetizer ( e . g ., fruit ).
Imbalance Theory
During the adolescent years , myelination and neural growth continues . During childhood , neurons are produced at a rate that is four-to-five times greater than that of adults . This process is called neurogenesis . Another important factor during those adolescent years is that dopamine production increases two to sevenfold during this stage of maturation . There is greater development of brain structures associated with emotional experiences and motivation / reward-seeking experiences in comparison with structures associated with processing and controlling those emotional experiences and reward-seeking impulses . There is evidence that the brain ’ s emphasis on developing emotional and reward-seeking structures might explain the difference between adolescents and adults as it relates to their risk-taking behaviors .
B . J . Casey , PhD , and her colleagues have proposed an imbalance theory of brain development to explain this process . The imbalance theory seems to help us better understand two things as it relates to children and adolescents : 1 ) they are more
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16 The Advocate Magazine 2022 , Issue # 2 American Mental Health Counselors Association ( AMHCA ) www . amhca . org