Teenagers

“No other species has teenagers. Even our closest relatives, the great apes, move smoothly from their juvenile to adult life phases. So why do humans spend an agonising decade or so skulking around in hoodies? Traditionally, the teenage years have been seen simply as a sort of reproductive apprenticeship, but a better understanding of adolescence had spawned some more interesting explanations.

David Bainbridge of the University of Cambridge, author of Teenagers: A natural history, says there are two big clues. The first is when adolescence evolved. Evidence from growth in the bones and teeth of fossilised hominins indicates that it emerged sometime between 800,000 and 300,000 years ago. This, he notes, pre-dates by a “fascinatingly short period” the great leap forward in human brain size, when our ancestors’ brains underwent the last big expansion to reach today’s size.

The second clue comes from neurobiology and brain imaging, which show that there is a wholesale reorganisation of hte brain during the teenage years. “The brain is roughly the same size at 20 as it is at 12, yet we can so so much more with it,” Bainbridge says.”

Douglas, Kate, 10 Mysteries of You, New Scientist, 8 August 2009, p.30-31

Reactions and Thoughts:
By using Puberty-Blockers can a sub category of the teenager be created to maximize on the reordering of the brain’s neurobiology and therefore to enhance our evolution – as well as having an impact on our species’ rate of population growth – with less people at the age of sexual maturity?

What new systems, objects, products and institutions will emerge to cater for the new teenager and prepare them for neurobiology re-wiring? What experiences will be created or simulated to add value to this re-wiring and evolution enhancement?

Words: ‘Peter-Pan’, ‘you are what you think’, ‘teenage kicks’, ‘old before their time’
Sources and notes of interest:
David Bainbridge, University of Cambridge and author of Teenagers: A natural history
Barry Bogin, Loughborough University (American Journal of Human Biology, vol 21, p567)

Delay puberty

“Transsexual children as young as 12 should be given drugs to postpone puberty and make it easier for them to change sex at the age of 16 if they still want to.  That’s the suggestion of the controversial draft guidelines, the first of their kind, issued last week (13 December 2008) by the international Endocrine Society.

The guidelines state that transsexual children and young teens who have begun early puberty should be given puberty-blockers to avoid inevitable changes to their bodies, which they perceive as out of line with their true gender. In the worst cases, these changes can drive children to self-harm or even suicide.

The idea is to buy thinking time for young people so they can decide if they want to begin a sex change using hormones when they are older. Puberty-blockers would also make life easier when transsexuals become adults. Male-to-female transsexuals for example, will not have the deep voice, masculine bone structure and body hair associated with adult men.”

Geddes, Linda, Delay puberty in transsexual teens, New Scientist 13 December 2008, p.8-9

Reactions to delaying puberty:
Puberty-Blockers are a very immediate way of controling personal evolution. Issues arise with the age in which children make the decision to take the treatment – could they be used on a whim? For fashion? Or by ultimate pushy parents who want to buy time for their children to gain extra years of schooling for the best exam results? Alternatively perscribed by the state in the water supply to surpress reproduction in the under-classes (note to self – buy bottled water)?

Organisations and researchers to note:
International Endocrine Society
Henriette Delemarre-van de Waal, Leiden University (a clinic in Netherlands which has prescribed puberty-blockers to more than 70 under 16s)
Russell Viner, Institute of Child Health, London (experience of transsexual teens)
Marvin Belzer, Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles (treated several 12 and 13 year olds with puberty-blockers)
Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, Free University of Amsterdam Medical Center (helped write the guidelines)
Bernard Reed, trustee of the Gender Identity Research and Education Society in Ashtead, UK (hopes guidelines will encourage UK doctors to consider the option of early treatment).