Keyword: brain development

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Why Teenagers Take Risks July 1, 2014

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Giullian Gioiello, Lisa Arnone
Category: Anxiety & Fear, Identity & The Self

Adolescent risk-taking is rooted in brain biology: the amygdala and reward circuits mature before the prefrontal cortex, leaving teenagers flooded with sensation-seeking drive and no brake. Armand DiMele, co-host Giullian Gioiello, and Lisa Arnone, LCSW trace this from evolutionary necessity through modern dangers like cutting, substance use, and viral stunts.

Growing Up Without Rules with Barbara Jessen March 27, 2007

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Barbara Jessen, Brian Jefferson, Stephanie D'Ambra
Category: Family & Parenting, Personal Growth & Change

Rules are love, argues Armand DiMele in this conversation with Barbara Jessen, executive director of a group home for at-risk teenage girls in Indiana. Together with Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, they examine what chaotic childhoods cost kids, how brain development shapes decision-making, and why structure feels foreign to children who never had it.

Rough Childhoods and Impulse Control April 12, 2006

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Roberta Maria Atti
Category: Addiction & Compulsion, Personal Growth & Change

Rough childhoods don’t just wound emotionally, they physically reshape the brain, and that is the root of impulse control problems. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Atti trace how early neglect stunts neuronal development and drives behaviors from theft and violence to binge eating and self-cutting, with a striking detour into what starvation studies reveal about compulsion.