New research study has found that transcendent thinking, which involves evaluating the broader implications of situations, can promote brain development in teenagers. This form of thinking boosts brain network coordination, affecting developmental milestones and future life fulfillment. The research study emphasizes the need for education that motivates deep, reflective idea, underscoring the critical role of teenagers in their own brain development.Scientists at CANDLE have actually found that teenagers who face the larger significance of social scenarios experience higher brain development, which forecasts more powerful identity development and life satisfaction years later.Scientists at the USC Rossier School of Educations Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (CANDLE), have revealed for the first time that a kind of thinking, that has been described for over a century as a developmental turning point of teenage years, might grow teens brains over time.This sort of thinking, which the research studys authors call “transcendent,” moves beyond responding to the concrete specifics of social situations to likewise think about the broader ethical, systems-level, and individual ramifications at play. Taking part in this kind of believing includes evaluating circumstances for their deeper meaning, historic contexts, civic significance, and/or underlying ideas.Study Methodology and FindingsThe research study team, led by USC Rossier Professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, includes Rebecca J.M. Gotlieb, research scientist at UCLA, and Xiao-Fei Yang, assistant research teacher at USC Rossier. The research study was just recently released in Scientific Reports.In previous research studies, the authors had actually shown that when teens and adults think of problems and situations in a transcendent method, lots of brain systems coordinate their activity, among them 2 significant networks important for mental performance: the executive control network and the default mode network. The executive control network is involved in managing focused and goal-directed thinking, while the default mode network is active during all sort of believing that transcends the “here and now,” such as when remembering individual experiences, picturing the future, feeling long-lasting emotions such as compassion, appreciation, and admiration for virtue, believing or fantasizing creatively.The scientists independently spoke with 65, 14-18-year-old high school students about true stories of other teens from all over the world and asked the trainees to explain how each story made them feel. The students then underwent fMRI brain scans that day and once again 2 years later. The scientists followed up with the participants twice more over the next three years, as they moved into their early twenties.Impact of Transcendent ThinkingWhat the scientists found is that all teenagers in the experiment talked at least some about the larger picture– what lessons they drew from a particularly poignant story, or how a story might have altered their perspective on something in their own life or the lives and futures of others. However, they discovered that while all of the getting involved teenagers might think transcendently, some did it even more than others. Which was what made the difference.The more a teen come to grips with the bigger picture and attempted to discover from the stories, the more that teen increased the coordination in between brain networks over the next two years, despite their IQ or their socioeconomic status. This brain growth– not how a teens brain compared to other teens brains however how a teens brain compared to their own brain two years earlier– in turn predicted essential developmental turning points, like identity advancement in the late teen years and life complete satisfaction in young the adult years, about 5 years later.The findings reveal a novel predictor of brain development– transcendent thinking. The scientists believe transcendent thinking might grow the brain since it requires coordinating brain networks included in effortful, focused thinking, like the executive control network, with those involved in internal reflection and free-form thinking, like the default mode network.These findings “have crucial ramifications for the design of high and middle schools, and potentially likewise for teen psychological health,” lead researcher Immordino-Yang says. The findings suggest “the value of participating in to teenagers requirements to engage with intricate point of views and feelings on the social and individual significance of issues, such as through civically minded educational approaches,” Immordino-Yang describes. Overall, Immordino-Yang highlights “the crucial function teens play in their own brain development through the significance they make from the social world.” Reference: “Diverse adolescents transcendent thinking forecasts young adult psychosocial outcomes via brain network development” by Rebecca J. M. Gotlieb, Xiao-Fei Yang and Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, 15 March 2024, Scientific Reports.DOI: 10.1038/ s41598-024-56800-0.
