Being Open and Relaxed - for Teenagers

Prakash Chalagulla shares his insights and some research findings on being open and staying relaxed while navigating the teenage years. It's all in the attitude!

- By Prakash Chalagulla

Being open is a fundamental personality trait that indicates receptiveness to new information, ideas, and experiences. So that we can retain new knowledge in our memory, related brain changes need to occur. New connections between neurons and synapses are formed in places such as the amygdala, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the prefrontal cortex, which are all involved in memory processing. It was once believed that, as we age, the neural networks became more rigid due to insufficient exposure caused by lack of learning. But in the past two decades, research has revealed that the brain never stops changing and adjusting. This capacity of the brain to change with learning is called plasticity.