A, age 16, finds that she cannot control her emotions when she becomes angry. From a biological perspective, this may because A’s _________ is mature but not her ____________________.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question presents a scenario about an adolescent who loses emotional control when angry, and asks, from a biological perspective, which brain region maturity pattern could explain this.

First, consider what is implied by the statement: A’s amygdala is mature while her prefrontal cortex is not yet fully mature.

Option: amygdala; prefrontal cortex. If the amygdala, which is involved in processing emotions and generating rapid emotional responses, is mature earlier, it can trigger strong emotional reactions. Meanwhile, the prefrontal cortex, which supports executive functions such as impulse control, planning, and regulation of emotions, continues to develop into late adolescence. This developmental mismatch makes it plausible that A can experience intense emotions (due to a mature amygdala) but struggles to regulate them (due to an immature prefrontal cortex).

Why this aligns with biological development: during puberty, the limbic system (including the amygdala) tends to mature earlier and more quickly than the prefrontal cortex, leading to heightened emotional reactivity with relatively poorer regulation. The scenario described fits that pattern, where emotional outbursts are less controlled because top-down control from the prefrontal regions has not fully matured.

Why other hypothetical options (if present) might be less accurate: any option suggesting that both structures are equally mature, or that the prefrontal cortex is fully mature while the amygdala is immature, would not account for the observed difficulty in emotion regulation during anger. Conversely, statements claiming regulation relies solely on one region without considering the interaction between socio-emotional processing (amygdala) and regulatory control (prefrontal cortex) would oversimplify the neural basis.

In summary, the combination of a mature amygdala with an immature prefrontal cortex provides a coherent biological explanation for why A cannot control emotions when angry during adolescence, reflecting known developmental trajectories of these brain regions.

SP25-BL-SPH-F347-1009 Quiz #2

A, age 16, finds that she cannot control her emotions when she becomes angry. From a biological perspective, this may because A’s _ is mature but not her ____________.

View Explanation

Log in for full answers

Similar Questions

During adolescence, the brain changes in that:

Dendrite growth is the main reason that brain weight _____ from birth to the age of 2.

Childhood as a life phase is...

True or false? Early in life, infants have far more neural connections than they need.

Human brains grow and develop at different rates compared to other species. At approximately what age does the human brain reach 95% of the adult size?

According to Finlay & Darlington (1995) humans have larger brains than apes because:

According to Finlay & Darlington (1995) humans have larger brains than apes because:

Professor Cingel notes that over the first two years of life the human brain triples in size.

More Practical Tools for Students Powered by AI Study Helper

Homework AI Solver

Stylized AI Paper Writer

Plagiarism Checker Assistant

Citation AI Academic Writing Tool

In-Class Translation Assistant

AI Note Generator

AI Quiz Answers

Past Exam Questions from University Test Bank

Smart Practice Assistant

Adaptive Practice

Making Your Study Simpler