Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Put yourself in this picture. You’re 17 years old and you have just completed your 120, painful, hours of driving practice. The practice pays off and the RTA gives you your first provisional license. Full of excitement you take your car out for a drive to your mates place. It’s a wet night and is still raining. You’re coming up to a set of lights that you have to go through. You have been waiting for a while. The light goes green and the cars in front are a bit slow to get going. The light suddenly turns yellow but you’re about 20 meters from the line. What would you do?

There is a good chance that a 17 year old would accelerate and go through the yellow light, anything could have happened to them. If you are a bit older it is fair to say that you most likely would have come to a stop due to the conditions and your experience on the road. There is a physical reason behind this response. Certain parts of the brain mature at a later age, especially those concerned with risk assessment and decision making, the frontal lobe. Activity in this area has been shown to be limited in adolescents when it comes to decision making and in particular making risky decisions.

Professor Danny Cass of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ stated that “There is evidence to suggest that the part of the brain that assesses and controls risks and controls impulsive behaviour is not fully developed until about age 25 (23 years in females), providing a physical reason why restrictions such as night curfews and limiting peer passengers is so important” (Cass, 2007).

The frontal lobe is located, as it sounds, at the front of the brain also known as the cerebral cortex. This area is heavily involved in the decision making process and the planning of voluntary movements. It is a vital part of the brain for movement to be achievable. Without the frontal lobe functioning there is no voluntary movement. The frontal lobe is broken up again into three areas known as cortices. The pre motor cortex is the part of the frontal lobe that controls the decision making process for movement to occur. A study recently completed at the University of California, performed over a 10 year period, looked at brain maturation in children.

The new study found that the first areas to mature (e.g., extreme front and back of the brain) are those with the most basic functions, such as processing the senses and movement. Areas with more advanced functions — integrating information from the senses, reasoning and other “executive” functions (prefrontal cortex) — mature last. The frontal lobe is not fully developed until the age of 25. All physical movement stems from planning processes that occur in this part of the brain.

The cerebral cortex not only contains the frontal lobe. There are three other lobes, the occipital, the parietal and the temporal lobe. All four lobes combine to perform movements.  The brain receives visual and auditory stimulus via both the occipital and temporal lobes respectively.  This is information is relayed to the frontal lobe where the decision making process takes hold. It assesses the incoming stimulus and uses it to make a decision. Visually, the driver observes the light changing from green to yellow, causing the frontal lobe to make a decision. The pre-motor cortex is the centre of the brain that makes the decision.

The result of the decision, i.e., to go through the yellow light or stop, is then sent to the somatosensory cortex via the motor cortex, the motor control centre. The somatosensory cortex moves the sensory information required for movement onto the cerebellum. From the cerebellum the signal progresses down the spinal cord and links with the neurons which activate the muscle fibres that in turn results in movement. Once the decision has been made whether to go through the light or stop, the information is sent to the muscles in the legs and the appropriate movement performed. So let me ask you, does your foot move to the brake or press harder on the accelerator?

Some research has found that the decision making process within the frontal cortex lies directly behind the eyes. Research has found that a lesion on that part of the brain impairs the individual’s ability to make the correct decisions. The same would apply if the frontal cortex was not fully developed as is the case in adolescents. When severe trauma occurs to the frontal lobe significant changes are made to an individuals ability to make decisions and live life. More often than not they require a carer to look after them 24/7. These carers are employed to make decisions for them. The same could be said about children and adolescents. The parents act as the ‘carer’ this too is due to the fact that this demographic are unable to make appropriate independent decisions. This inability stems from the insufficient development of the frontal lobe.

“Inexperience” is a term that is bandied around with regards to decisions made in the sporting arena. Let us set the scene. The Parramatta Eels first game debutant at the tender age of 18, busts through the Penrith defence and with support looming up on his inside, only has the fullback to beat. He has the option of passing the ball to the support players (safer option) or running it himself (riskier option). He decides to try and beat the fullback himself and in turn is tackled with the ball. The decision he made to hold onto the ball ultimately prevented his team from scoring a try. The bad decision that he made resulted in a bad outcome. Luckily this is only a game of football, but in the real world the consequence of a bad decision, especially on the road, can result in serious injury and death.

Steps have already been taken in New South Wales to assist in lowering the incidents involving young people on the roads. These include raising the amount of practice hours from 50 to 120 and peer restrictions between 11pm and 5am. Further to these we believe there are two directions that our governing bodies should be considering, raising the driving age or firming up restrictions on first year drivers or all provisional drivers. The research shows that the development of the brain is a linear process until the age of about 20. In this time the presence of grey matter, the neural binding property, decreases and by the age of 20 is practically non existent in the brain as development is complete.  It may be ideal to consider raising the legal provisional driving age within New South Wales to the age of 20, by which case the brain, and areas which co-ordinate decisions associated with driving, are developed. Alternatively, firming up restrictions on first year provisional drivers such as reducing the number of passengers 24 hours a day and eliminating use of mobile phones, will hopefully limit the number of distractions adolescent drivers face and therefore reduce the complexity of the decision making process.

Decision making is quite a complex process that through time is shaped so that we know what decision is the right decision. There are many parts that assist in the process, however, from start to finish, it only takes a fraction of a second. This fraction of a second could be the difference between life and death.

Reference
Cass, D., Atkinson, R., & Graham, J. (2007). Submission to the Inquiry into Young Driver Safety and Education Program Sydney: Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

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