Adolescent Brain The cross-cultural differences in child and adolescent brain development is a cross-disciplinary study that can be contained under the rubric of medical anthropology, adolescent neuropsychology, or the budding field of cultural neuroscience. The field is brimming with possibilities because of the wide differences observable and measured in the perception of adolescence, the experience of adolescence, and the corresponding biological differences in children and teen brains across different cultures. Choudhury refers to factors such as the cultural contingencies of categories, which will be the foundation of the adolescent experience. Research also reveals differences in experience based on culture and cultural context as well as gender and social norms. Although research in the area of cross-cultural differences in child and adolescent brain development is diverse, one common thread remains: The study of adolescence itself has a cultural context. Adolescence is culturally contingent on the roles, values, and norms of a society. Child and adolescent brain development may also reveal core differences between cultures.

There may even...

Adolescence is characterized universally by both structural and functional plasticity, according to Choudhury. Social processing, social behavior, and adolescent sociology are also related to brain development. Research in animals can shed light on the biological and neurophysiological differences in brain development (Knickmeyer et al.).
Anthropological medical research shows that there are several cultural factors shared in common pointing to a discreet adolescent zone of experience. For example, rites of passage are universal in childhood and adolescence. However, the experience of emotional instability blamed on raging hormones that is a prevalent Western point-of-view is not necessarily shared among non-European cultures (Chen and Farruggia). Adolescent brains in cultures that do not exhibit the stress and strain experiences of puberty might illuminate the ways in which European cultures are failing to provide the social context in which a child can thrive. Socialization, rites of passage,…