Inventing Ourselves

Our personalities, aspirations and dreams are all established in our brains. It creates every feeling, emotion and desire we experience, and stores every one of our memories. And yet, until very recently, we believed that it stopped developing in childhood; that by the time you reached adolescence, your brain was fully developed. In Inventing Ourselves, award-winning neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore reveals that this is simply not the case. There are fundamental differences between the adult and adolescent brain, and typical teenage behaviour – risk taking, intense relationships, going to bed and getting up late – is caused by the transformations that take place during this formative period. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these physiological changes are most evident in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for decision-making, planning, inhibiting inappropriate behaviour, evaluating risk and understanding others. While working in a psychiatric hospital in Versailles, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore was struck by the realisation that every patient first experienced symptoms during this pivotal period. Why is this? What happens to our brains during our teenage years? And what makes adolescent brains particularly vulnerable to illnesses such as schizophrenia? With implications for education, parenting and treating mental health conditions, Inventing Ourselves will transform the way we think about adolescence and reveal that the changes we experience throughout our teenage years dictate the adults we become.

Winner of the 2020 British Psychological Society Popular Science PrizeWinner of the 2018 Royal Society Science Book Prize.........................................................................................Up to the minute brain science from a world class scientist. Winner of the 2020 British Psychological Society Popular Science PrizeWinner of the 2018 Royal Society Science Book Prize.........................................................................................Up to the minute brain science from a world class scientist. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore explains how the adolescent brain transforms as it develops and shapes the adults we become. 'Beautifully written with clarity, expertise and honesty about the most important subject for all of us. I couldn't put it down.' - Professor Robert Winston Drawing upon her cutting-edge research Professor Blakemore explores:· What makes the adolescent brain different? · Why does an easy child become a challenging teenager? · What drives the excessive risk-taking and the need for intense friendships common to teenagers? · Why it is that many mental illnesses - depression, addiction, schizophrenia - begin during these formative years.And she shows that while adolescence is a period of vulnerability, it is also a time of enormous creativity and opportunity.