Why are teens oblivious to the pile of dirty clothes on the bedroom floor?

Teenagers always have been a mystery puzzling their parents: What was he thinking when he drove down a one-way street the wrong way just for kicks? Why is she oblivious to the heap of clothes piled on the bedroom floor for two weeks?

Frances Jensen, a neuroscientist and single mother of two boys, pondered these questions and many more, then delved into the emerging science of the adolescent brain. She came out with provocative new insights for parents, educators, public policymakers and teens themselves.

“I thought, I’ve got the skill set for this. I’m a parent, a neurologist and I care for teen patients,” said Jensen, who was in Washington this week for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. “And it was all in the scientific journals not available to the public, locked away in the ivory tower.”

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