newsela
hhadyak Balo
Cognitive Development: How the teen brain
grows
By Public Domain, adapted by Newsela staff on 08.26.21
Word Count 568
Level 920L
escence the brain grows and prepares you to think and learn These changes in the brain are called cognitive developm
afeine/Getty Images
Dody grows through your life, your brain is growing too. This process is called cogni
ment: the changes in the brain that get people ready to think and learn. And during
or adolescent) years, brains go through a lot of this growth that will build teens' ab
ecisions.
s time, the brain grows and strengthens itself in three ways:
-ing new brain cells. Brain cells, or neurons, pass electrical signals along in the
signals control everything in the body. Adolescence is one of the few times in wh
makes a lots of cells, very fast, even making more cells than it needs. These extra
we teens more places to store information.

Read the Introduction [paragraphs 1-5]. Select the sentence from the introduction that suggests it is not helpful to have too many brain cells.