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4 Serving Teens with Mental Illness in the Library which isn’t as rapid as the physical changes and often causes trouble for most teens. Since teens are very much aware that their bodies are chang- ing, their behavior reflects how they are feeling, which explains why some teens are very self-­conscious about their bodies and are reluctant to share how they are feeling. In order to understand teen behavior, it’s important to know more about the source of these processes, starting with the brain. The Adolescent Brain The human brain functions as the epicenter of what makes you who you are. Although the human brain doesn’t look like much other than an ugly, wrinkly mass of tissue, it contains millions of structures that fit within every crevice, each of which has specific purposes and missions. To better understand the living and functioning brain, try googling a brain MRI and notice that this organ is made up of two types of matter (gray matter and white matter) and two hemispheres made up of four different lobes. These lobes are responsible for a lot of things. Within them are brain cells called neurons that are connected to nerve fibers (synapses), which communicate and send signals all through the brain to keep the person alive and functional. As children, the synapses exist to absorb information, and, the more you learn, the more you grow syn- apses. However, as you get older, the brain has this built-­in mechanism to cut off or “prune” most of these synapses as the brain has learned to do what it needs without the help of the synapses. Along with this prun- ing, the gray matter, which houses millions of the neurons and is the thickest layer of the cerebral cortex, undergoes construction to become more efficient and much faster. This is what happens as puberty occurs and why teens are able to multitask so well. As for white matter, which is made up of nerve fibers called axons, it is responsible for speeding up the nerve signals between the different lobes. These lobes house a variety of functions that are not only responsible for unconscious activities such as breathing and blinking but are responsible for personality traits, muscle memory, comprehension, and many other things. What’s even more fascinating is that these lobes are connected through a series of wires to your senses, which means when you are hun- gry and want ice cream, your sight tells the brain, “Eat ice cream,” and your taste signals to your brain to say, “Yum.” Now that you know a little more about the structure that makes up the brain, let’s learn more about the lobes and what they are responsible for.