so what's happening in the brain is that you have this synaptic plasticity i was talking about where you're able to actually learn faster because you have more machinery for learning but at the same time, as this sort of being very on and very excitable, impressionable brain, you are trying to slowly hook up the areas of your brain to one another. that process is the thing that takes a really long time. that was what was in that movie clip of the brain getting gradually blue and connected. it goes from the back of the brain to the front. that process is basically little tiny cells that are actually insulating with fat, a process of natural insulation that we have. these long tracks that go from one side of the brain to the other and all the way to the front. the girls are further on that journey than the boys. they're not there yet. i think it helps explain a lot of where you see them academically. >> quote from your book, during adolescence more than any other time emotions rule our lives. you also say in large part what makes adolescence so difficult is that much of the teenager's