Dr. Abigail Baird. Courtesy/learner.org

FSN News:

If you have ever wondered why teenagers do seemingly thoughtless things, you may want to attend a viewing of Dr. Abigail Baird’s eye opening and enormously entertaining presentation on the teenage brain.

The Family Strengths Network (FSN) will host a screening of Baird’s 2009 talk in Los Alamos, 8:30-10:30 a.m., Feb. 21 at Los Alamos High School. The viewing is free to the public. The DWI Planning Committee is sponsoring the event and Chamisa Elementary School Counselor Michelangelo Lobato will moderate it.

Baird’s talk theorizes that teenagers’ carelessness might be due to the fact that adolescents are actually thinking too much and feeling too little. Behavioral and functional imaging studies suggest that while adolescents are able to cognitively understand potentially poor decisions, it is actually the lack of feeling potential consequences that underlies lapses in judgment; lapses that so often leave adults scratching their heads in confusion and asking, “what were you thinking?” when perhaps the more revealing question would be “what were you feeling?”

Baird earned her bachelor’s of arts degree in biopsychology from Vassar College and her PhD. in developmental psychology from Harvard University. Her research includes the integration of emotion and cognition, with a focus on neural development during adolescence. She is studying how teenagers use emotional and cognitive information to inform their decision-making.

To register for the event, visit www.lafsn.org or call Family Strengths Network at 505.662.4515. Family Strengths Network is a United Way Community Partner.