Brain development and functioning

Step 1: To inspire your thinking process and curiosity, select and watch at least one of the following Ted Talks:

Neuroscientist Sabine Doebel explains our brains executive functioning: How Your Brains Executive Functioning Works and How to Improve it (webpage, opens in a new tab).
Kashfia Rahman discusses how she, as a curious student, explored risk-taking in the adolescent brain:  How Risk-taking Changes a Teenagers Brain  (webpage, opens in a new tab).
Neuroscientist Sarah-Jane Blackburn explains how the adolescent brain functions: Mysterious Functioning of the Adolescent Brain (webpage, opens in a new tab).

Step 2:  Identify an aspect of brain functioning that compels you.  It can be inspired from one of the above Ted Talks, or it can be of your own interest. For example:

What are strategies to improve executive functioning of the brain?
Does habituation actually change brain functioning to increase risk-taking behavior in an adolescent?
What pathways in the brain are associated with risk taking behavior and reward?
How does the prefrontal cortex of an adolescent differ from the prefrontal cortex of an adults brain?

Step 3: Search the academic literature to identify a research article that addresses (at least to some extent) the aspect of brain functioning you identified in Step 2. The article needs to be from an academic journal.  Use one of the following resources to help you locate an academic article.

You can search the following: Monitor on Psychology (webpage, opens in a new tab). Monitor on Psychology is reader friendly and has thousands of articles.

Step 4:  Compose an APA citation for the article you selected. Use the following as a guide:

Kemps, E., Tiggermann, M., Orr, J., & Grear, J. (2014). Attentional retraining can reduce chocolate consumption.

            Journal of Experimental Psychology, 20(1), 94-102.

            https://doi-org.db24.linccweb.org/10.1037/xap0000005

Author(s) last name, first initial(s). (Year). Title of the article with only the first word capitalized.

          Title of Journal, Volume of Journal(issue number), page numbers.  https://DOI

The following link from Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) explains the required parts of an APA citation for academic articles:  https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_electronic_sources.html (webpage, opens in a new tab).