Hold My Beer and Watch This!

Imagine suddenly finding yourself driving around in a high-powered race car without a steering wheel. Sounds like an accident waiting to happen doesn't it? Now replace the words 'driving around in high-powered race car' with 'walking around in a teenage body' and 'steering wheel' with 'prefrontal cortex' and you can begin to understand how nature can sometimes play nasty tricks on us humans. The prefrontal cortex is a fancy name for the part of the brain that helps control impulsive behavior, planning, organizing, good decision making and other so-called executive functions of the brain. It's our neural steering wheel. Some brain researchers believe that this part of the brain is not quite ready-for-prime-time until humans are well into their twenties. That's probably why so many young people display a "hold my beer and watch this" attitude until their mid-twenties. The part of the brain that handles sound judgement and responsible behavior is simply not finished yet. Of course, most scientists would rather share toothbrushes and underwear than share conclusions. Therefore, as usual you can expect to encounter plenty of disagreement among the experts on this prefrontal cortex issue if you dig into it.

I doubt if many teenagers are reading my blog...so what does this have to do with those of us, shall we say, beyond the mid-twenties. First, it helps us better understand the young people in our lives and gives those of us who are parents a way to distance ourselves from the erratic and sometime outrageous behavior of our offspring. We can always say to others, "I raised them to know better...it's that prefrontal cortex stuff causing problems you know!" It also helps us understand why we frequently have the desire to unwind some of the major decisions we made earlier in life. Of course, the two big ones are: Now...let me think about it again..."Why exactly did I choose this career?" or "Why did I marry this person?" If things have worked out great for you in both of these areas of life...then consider yourself pre-frontally blessed (or lucky). If they didn't, now you have a great excuse. You no longer have to try and convince yourself or others that you didn't really make a mistake...or that things are not really that bad. Now you have a scientific excuse and a neural scapegoat to blame...you can comfortably and blamelessly put past mistakes behind you and move forward in life.

Of course, you all know that making excuses and blaming your neurons won't really solve anything. But knowing that many of our major life decisions were made when we were in our "hold my beer and watch this" phase of life may help you understand, reevaluate and possibly alter your path in life now that your prefrontal cortex is fully up and running. If nothing else...you can use this information to scientifically scold your children. The next time you are going on a trip with them, you can say..."If you kids don't exercise some measure of control over your prefrontal cortices...I'll turn this car around and go home right this minute!"

If you want to know more about this prefrontal cortex stuff, go on the internet and take a look at some of the information on Dr. Jay Giedd's research.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.