Inventing Ourselves (9781784161347)

Winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Prize 2018. 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.

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.