The brain goes through a lot of changes during adolescence. In regard to mental health in young people, these changes can make the brain quite sensitive to injuries. Let us start by talking about how the various areas of the brain are connected to each other. Regions of the brain need to communicate with each other so that we can think, plan, and carry out tasks in everyday life. The brain is made up of gray matter and white matter. Gray matter contains the cell bodies of neurons (which are the building blocks of the brain that process information). White matter consists of parts of neurons called axons, which are the connections that link different regions of gray matter together. During adolescence, the white matter begins to decide which brain areas need to be connected the most. Think of this like a road map. Big cities get visited by more people more often, so highways are built to make sure that people can access these places quickly and easily. On the other hand, little country towns might only have dirt tracks connecting them, because they do not get visited as often.

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Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00055