As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in Roper v. Simmons regarding the death penalty for juvenile offenders, researchers have found critical evidence that the brain continues to change dramatically during adolescence. This research may help explain the impulsive, often irrational behavior seen in some teenagers. “Kids may know the difference between right and wrong, but that does not stop them from doing dumb and dangerous things that they would never think of doing as adults,” stated David Fassler, a child psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont. Fassler and other psychiatric experts base their statements on brain research that shows that the front lobe, the part of the brain that controls reason, develops last. Researchers at David Geffin School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, Harvard Medical School, the National Institute of Mental Health, and elsewhere have conducted a series of studies in recent years that follow the development of the brain from childhood to adulthood. This research has found that the frontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls the most advanced functions of the brain and acts as the body’s “CEO” by allowing humans to plan, anticipate consequences, control impulses, prioritize thoughts and think in the abstract, continues to develop for individuals into their 20s. Prior to the brain’s full development, a more primitive part of the brain, known as the amygdala, controls decision-making. Brain-development research has led a number of national mental health organizations, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, to plan to jointly file a legal brief on behalf of juvenile offender Christopher Simmons to the Supreme Court. The Court will hear the case this fall. (The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2004) See Juvenile Death Penalty. See also DPIC’s Web page on Roper v. Simmons.