Impulses Stress Young BrainsScience: Law enforcement explores cerebral development, crime links – The Monterey County Herald, Sunday, February 20, 2011 – by JULIA REYNOLDS This weekend, (February 18-21, 2011) criminal defense attorneys from all over California are meeting in Monterey for their annual conference on death penalty issues — and among other hot topics, they’re discussing the latest scientific findings on young adult brains. Just a couple of decades ago, researchers concluded that teenage brains are not fully developed when it comes to certain rational functions such as impulse control. Now, neuroscientists are discovering that those areas of the brain develop later than once thought — and probably don’t mature until age 22 or older. But what many scientists accept as fact about the difficulties young people face in controlling impulses has been slow to trickle into policing and the criminal justice system. [more…] http://www.strategiesforyouth.org/pdfs/impulses_stress_young_brains.htm