Study challenges teen sexual experiences, porn perceptions

When you were in high school, you secretly worried about which girls were doing it and which guys were liked liked you. Contrary to the perception that boys desire more sex than women, a new study published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics proved what women knew but never said out loud—females and males equally desire and care about sex.

The scientists aimed to investigate the porn viewing patterns of pubescent youth, perceptions of porn and sexuality, experience in sexual abuse and sexual experience in general. They conducted classroom surveys with teens from two towns in central Sweden.

Even though teenage boys consume more pornography and think about it more often, a new study which conducted interviews with more than 800 Swedish teens found that 16-year-old boys and girls have similar sexual fantasies and girls consume more porn than the researchers thought.

As a reader, I would have liked to have known more about the assumptions regarding female sexuality, particularly why they believed young women had different sexual fantasies than men or consumed less pornography.

Surprisingly, the results revealed that Swedish girls were more sexually experienced than the boys, and a positive perception of porn predicted being sexually experienced, according to the study. The researchers defined sexual experienced to mean oral sex, intercourse, and anal sex.

What I found more disturbing were the predictors of being sexually experience such as being a girl, attending a vocational high school program, living with separated parents, having experience of sexual abuse.

Weed wears on the teen brain

Image courtesy: Blogs.WSJ.com

As 4/20 approaches, many americans—whether legally or not—will light up a doubie for the annual cannabis holiday.

While smoking a joint has been proven to ease the pain or burden of multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and cancer treatments, it can also slow the developing teenage brain, according to Krista Lisdahl, director of brain imaging and neuropsychology lab at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.  

Early marijuana use, defined as starting before the ages 16--18, is associated with more serious cognitive consequences such as poorer attention, visual search and reduced overall or verbal IQ, according to a study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry.

In fact, after researchers observed several groups of people who did and did not smoke weed after an 8 year period, those engaged in chronic--no pun intended--marijuana use during teenage years is associated with neurocognitive deficits like poorer attention functioning, memory and processing speed, according to the study.

The common misconception surrounding smoking weed is that it's harmless. In the National Institute of Health survey released December 2013, the results showed that not only are eighth through twelfth graders smoking more weed, they don’t think lighting a joint does anything to them. According to the NIH survey, nearly 40 percent of twelfth graders perceive weed smoking as harmful, which was a decrease from nearly 45 percent from the previous year.

During an interview with NPR reporter Linda Wertheimer, Lisadahl said the higher THC levels present in today’s herb is making it more potent that it was in ‘70s, causing the increased potency and risk for addiction.

Whether you're opposed to smoking bud or in favor it's benefits and effects, it's clear that too much of anything (and indulging too early in life) can have unintended health consequences.

Legislators look closer at traumatic brain injuries.

Courtesy Neuroscience.Tumblr.Com

Sports serve several functions in contemporary American society. They bring us together through the camaraderie in competition. They keep us fit and even help us take out our aggression.

But imagine being on a football field. In front of you stands a team of young, husky football players — all of whom are just as eager as you are to take home the victory and are willing to pummel you to do it. What happens when a player initiates a helmet-to-helmet collision, causing you to get a concussion?

Injuries that were once accepted as part of the game have begun attracting the attention of congressional leaders. Illinois Representative Janice Schakowsky and other members of the House of Energy and Commerce subcommittee met with professors, neuroscientists, physicists and Ian Heaton March 13 to discuss improving sports safety, preventing traumatic brain injuries, and the ever-present misunderstanding of the condition.  

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or a penetrating head injury that interrupts the normal function of the brain, according to the Center for Disease Control. In 2010, 2.5 million TBI’s occurred either alone or with other injuries, the CDC reported. TBI’s can affect a person’s cognitive functions such as memory, reasoning, communication and senses, according to the CDC.

Contrary to previous studies, the results of a study published in BioMed Central Feb. 26 indicated that TBI during a significant phase in cognitive development at pre-school age seemed not to impair functional and psychological long-term outcome compared to elder children or adults. 

Of course that doesn't mean you should let young kids jump off the couch. But if they do, they have a better chance of recovering than if your teens did the same thing.

As of yet, there seems to be no uniformity in laws to address the problem among American teens. According to a June 2013 article in the American Journal of Public Health, 44 states put youth sports TBI laws in place, most of which focus on secondary prevention of TBI’s and vary on whether a health professional has to have a training in identifying TBI’s.

After an hour and 20 minutes of discussion, the committee concluded that there needs to be more research on the subject and the safety of children must be taken seriously. Where we need to go from here was not quite clear.

“Hopefully this increased focus will lead to better research, better safety equipment, detection and of course prevention,” said Mississippi Rep. Greg Harper. “We love our children going through sports  ... and we wouldn’t want anybody hurt that shouldn’t be hurt.”