Science Headlines: Voting Age

Science Headlines: Voting Age
An information service for media in New Zealand

10 July 2007

Public debate has begun in New Zealand on whether sixteen year olds are mature enough to vote. This Science Headlines is a re-release of two quotes about brain development across the teenage years – both of these scientists are happy to be interviewed on the issue of voting age.

1. Dr Sue Bagshaw is Senior Medical Officer at the Youth Health Centre in Christchurch, Chair of the Collaborative for Research and Training in Youth Health and Development, and Senior Lecturer in Adolescent Health at the University of Otago.

Website: www.collaborative.org.nz

“Young people at 15 now are not expected to take adult roles, even though 100-150 years ago the expectation was that they would make a full contribution to society. We know from the latest research that brain development is not complete until the age of 25. These developing brains need nurturing - but they can't develop well unless they are used, and that means allowing young people to enjoy the challenges of participating and being involved in doing things, not just being ‘done to’!

“By actively involving young people in our research, we can find out what they think about such things as wearing seat belts in the back seats of cars, and the ways in which they could or would access health care. This helps inform our health promotion and our health service provision so that we can provide facilities that young people will use - rather than just making an adult decision for them, and then being disappointed by young people’s non-participation."

2. Associate Professor Louise Nicholson is a neuroanatomist at The University of Auckland researching molecular mechanisms of brain function in health and disease.

Website: http://www.health.auckland.ac.nz/anatomy/staff/louise_nicholson.html

“There is a lot of important research being done on the wiring of the brain. As children grow, new wiring is happening constantly. New connections are being formed. Research published last year showed that young people’s brains are still developing into their mid-twenties. So it’s not just a teenager’s body that is growing and changing – their central nervous system is taking off as well.

“It’s amazing really. Once brain cells are committed, it takes a really special environment to get them to change. But the central nervous system of a young person is very different to an adult’s one. In a young person, everything is still ‘plastic’ – able to change and adapt. They can suffer a major brain insult, and still make a recovery that an adult might find hard, if not impossible to achieve – this is because young brain cells still have this wonderful plasticity.

“We’re not all the same. The way the brain develops is influenced by the stimuli it receives. A young person needs to have all sorts of different experiences to make sure they are able to process, to comprehend, to make rational decisions, to evaluate risk and articulate their thoughts. These are crucial learning experiences that help to make us who we are.”

Science Headlines is a service managed by the Royal Society of New Zealand and funded by the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

ENDS

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