Between childhood and adulthood our hormones kick-start a phase of significant change.

And while the physical changes of adolescence may be obvious, less visible are the changes
that these hormones pick up in our brains.

Which might just be responsible for turning our teenage years into a bit of a roller coaster.

Throughout our lives our brains go through: a process called neural pruning.

The synapses, through which our neurons communicate are either lost or strengthened,
depending on how much we use them.

Well-used synapses grow strong, while the weaker ones fade away.

It's this process that makes us capable of faster, clearer and complex thought as we grow
up.

But, crucially, pruning at different rates in different areas of the brain.

By the time we're adolescents the neural networks that communicate emotion, risk and
reward are well developed, while others that may help us to plan, prioritize, think logically
and moderate our social behavior are yet to mature.

So, a potential mismatch between our emotion and judgement arises just as our emotional
and social worlds are becoming more complex, making an increase in social anxiety quite
normal at this time.

Researchers at the University of Oxford are up for knowing how this might act on our
behavior as we break through our teenage years.

In a recent study, they focused on social worries many of us feel as adolescents.

When presented with photographs of ambiguous social scenes, and put to think up
themselves in the picture, anxious younger teens were more likely than others to perceive
negativity.

But, while these heightened emotions and the struggle to take them over can make
adolescence a difficult time for some, it's also a golden time for picking up and growth.

The adolescent brain is particularly agile and flexible, and as such it's especially get to new
technologies and new experiences.

So while our teenage years may bring themselves down, they're also pretty wonderful.