Rationale Behind the Recklessness: The Science and Reasoning of Extreme Risk-Taking

We are preached to from a young age that everyone on the planet is a unique individual. Some of their defining traits can be physical: there are short people, and there are tall people. Blonds and brunettes. Blue eyes and hazel. Other characteristics take on a more psychological perspective: there are introverts, and there are extroverts. Optimists and pessimists. Some qualities seem to be more personal preference than anything else: dogs over cats. Red car versus blue cars. A preference to live with caution, or a tendency to throw caution to the wind. However, recent research is beginning to suggest that at least the last attribute, although it appears a simple lifestyle choice, may actually have a lot more to do with the circuitry of our brain than we had previously thought. In fact, the recklessness of thrill-seekers, and of teenagers in particular, may be wired right into our DNA.

Everyone, even the most passive, apprehensive of people has heard of the famed adrenaline rush of the daredevils of the world. There are different levels of daring, of course; according to Vanderbilt Professor David Zald, in an interview with Discovery, people can get the same level of a rush feeling from riding a roller-coaster as BASE jumping off a mountain cliff (free-falling then releasing a parachute.) But what could prompt the extreme, habitual thrillseekers (such as the BASE jumpers) to take on such perilous tasks, over and over again? In a broad sense, Zald suggests that there is always this tension related to things that have novelty or excitement, between the potential gain and the potential loss (Ribas, Jorge,

www.news.discovery.com) In other words, daring individuals have a bit of an internal conflict between desiring the adrenaline rush of an exciting activity, and whether or not theyll injure themselves/lose a lot of money/die in the process. This conflict creates some tension, and often that building tension and excitement is what prompts them to take the risks.

On a more scientific note, Zald also says that there is a connection between a habitual thrill-seeking individual and the functioning of the dopamine neurotransmitters in their brain. Dopamine is a hormone secreted from the hypothalamus in the brain. It functions similarly to adrenaline (also called epinephrine) in the way that it causes a rush during exciting or highstress activities. Zald comments that people most apt to take extreme risks have less regulation of the dopamine system, so that when stimulated, they get more dopamine release. These individuals are more likely to be strong excitement seekers because they are usually lower on dopamine receptors than the average individual, and enjoy the steep rush they can get from a sudden influx of the hormone. In fact, Zald even likens dopamine to a drug, saying that they get such a rush from doing [high-risk activities] that it takes on an almost addictive quality, ...since [dopamine] is the substrate cocaine and amphetamine act on. (Ribas, Jorge, www.news.discovery.com)

Thrill-seekers low on dopamine also tend to have many defining characteristics that can make them more easily recognizable. Erik Monasterio, a medical doctor and mountaineer doing research at the University of Otago, has spent much of his career studying the behaviors and personalities of BASE jumpers and mountain climbers. In an article for Alpinist Magazine in

2007, he writes that the personality of climbers was quite different to that of average people. Climbers scored higher in the areas of Novelty-Seeking and Self-Directedness and lower on Harm-Avoidance when he conducted surveys. He continues that they are easily bored, try to avoid monotony and so tend to be quick-tempered, excitable, and impulsive (Monasterio, Erik, The Risks of Adventure Sports/People).

Interestingly, dopamine also plays an important part in the functioning of disorders like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. In cases of ADHD, persons afflicted often display many of the same traits as die-hard mountaineers, although usually much more intensely. Research on ADHD suggests that there is a lower than normal level of dopamine receptors in the brain and that the neurotransmitters arent always working properly, just like what Zald said about the thrill-seekers in his interview. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, ADHD is a problem with inattentiveness, over-activity, impulsivity, or a combination (Zieve, M.D., David, www.nlm.nih.gov), similar to the characteristics Monasterio described in his mountaineers.

Of all the reckless, impulsive people in the world, their standout behavior seems to peak during adolescent years. Teenagers have almost always been known to be a reckless bunch. At any place in time, they are infamous among the older generation for throwing themselves into risky situations that could leave them with very unhappy consequences later on. Everybody from Aristotle to Shakespeare seemed to have a comment on the matter, the former saying over 2,300 years ago that the young are heated by nature as drunken men by wine. It has been generally

assumed by most people (parents in particular) that this is just the way teenagers arethat society has instilled in them a frustrating need for rebellion against their seniors; that they are so smothered by peer-pressure that they just have to go along with what everyone else is doing; or that their child is just simply, in fact, quite crazy.

For quite some time, it was widely believed in the scientific community, away from any biases of exasperated parents, that teens behaved the way they did because their brains hadnt finished growing and developing yet. This was known as the work in progress hypothesis, and basically stated that teens were so lacking in common sense because their brains werent as burly as adult ones, and didnt have the room to process as sophisticated of functions. Although unfortunate for the scientists that came up with this model, proponents of teen sanity had a breakthrough when it was eventually discovered that by first grade, a childs brain is already 90% grown. The fine-tuning of said brain into an efficient machine, however, was still rather far away.

According to a National Geographic article published this year by David Dobbs, our brains undergo a massive reorganization between our 12th and 25th years (Dobbs, David, www.ngm.nationalgeographic.com). This massive reorganization is a little complicated to conceptualize, but basically, it involves improving connections between the brains axonslong nerve fibers that send signalsby gradually coating them with fatty insulation called myelin. This myelin coating can eventually boost the axons transmission speed up to a hundred times, according to Dobbs. That is quite the upgrade. Signal-receiving extensions from neurons, called

dendrites, grow sturdier, and synapses, chemical pathways that carry signals between dendrites and axons, also grow stronger.

However, these upgrades dont happen all in one moment, or even simultaneously. Instead, according to brain imaging work on teens done during the 1990s, the changes progress in a slow wave from the brains rear to its front, from areas... that look after older and more behaviorally basic functions, such as vision, movement, and fundamental processing, to the evolutionarily newer and more complicated thinking areas near the front of the brain (Dobbs, David, www.ngm.nationalgeographic.com). These evolutionary newer areas involve more abstract concepts like morals, aspirations, impulsivity, and recklessness... the areas where teens in particular seem to have the most difficulties. As our brain awkwardly shifts between jumps in progress in assorted, scattered areas of thought, our physical gawkiness seems to be perfectly matched by mental gawkiness as well.

On the Society for Neuroscience website, a January 2007 article elaborates on the harebrained activities of teen years when it claims that these brain changes can result in highrisk behaviors, addiction vulnerability, and mental illness, as different parts of the brain mature at different rates. They also bring numbers into the scenario, stating that in 2004 70 percent of high school seniors used alcohol in the previous year, and in 2005 an estimated 2.7 million children and adolescents were reportedly struggling with severe emotional or behavioral difficulties (The Adolescent Brain, www.sfn.org). These statistics imply that the rocky development of the teenage brain can only result in calamity, which if Darwin were here, he

would probably suggest was not the case. If one were to put adolescent neuroscience into the context of natural selection, where only individuals with the fittest traits survive, it would indicate that any teenagers with recklessness or impulsivity that detracted from their ability to survive and reproduce would have died out long ago. Clearly, this is not the case, since we are still here peeving our parents. Rather than being a hindrance to humankind, Dobbs goes as far to suggest in his National Geographic article that our teenage willingness to experiment could have had evolutionary advantages: The move outward from home is the most difficult thing that humans do, as well as the most criticalnot just for individuals but for a species that has shown an unmatched ability to master challenging new environments. In scientific terms, teenagers can be a pain in the ass. But they are quite possibly the most fully, crucially adaptive human beings around. Without them, humanity might not have so readily spread across the globe.

And adolescents arent only fostering neurological connections during these years, either. Strong social connections developed during teenage years also played a integral role in our evolutionary history. Although we were born and raised in a world under the control of our elders, once we graduate into adulthood the world suddenly becomes ours to make. According to Dobbs, Knowing, understanding, and building relationships with [our peers] bears critically on success (Dobbs, David, www.ngm.nationalgeographic.com). Dobbs also states that some studies suggest that our brains react to peer exclusion as much as they respond to threats to physical health or food supply. That certainly says scores about the importance of friendship,

but is also important in keeping us united as a species, and probably helps to explain why weve done so well evolutionarily compared to other organisms.

So, in conclusion, perhaps some risk-taking isnt that horrendous of a path after all, since it did help us outlive the Neanderthals an extra thirty thousand years. And thrill-seeking doesnt have to be the exclusive domain of BASE jumpers and mountaineers, eithera little willingness to risk it can help even the most average individual achieve success. In 1926, a Norwegian explorer and scientist by the name of Fridtjof Nansen gave a speech at St. Andrews University titled simply Adventure, which author Gunnar Breivik used in his essay The Quest for Excitement and the Safe Society (Breivik, Gunnar, Philosophy, Risk, and Adventure Sports. London: New York, 2007. Print.) In his speech, Nansen spoke about how it was ingrained deeply in human nature to overcome challenges, both in ultimate, extreme adventure (his type), and also in an ordinary persons everyday life: It is our perpetual yearning to overcome difficulties and dangers, to see the hidden things, to penetrate into the regions outside our beaten track. ...You have to take risks, and cannot allow yourself to be frightened by them when you are convinced that you are following the right course. Nothing worth having in life is ever attained without taking risks.

Works Cited Ribas, Jorge. "Adventure: Extreme Sports Risk-Taking Explained : Video : Discovery News." Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, History, Adventure, Human, Autos. Discovery Communications, LLC, 25 Sept. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http:// news.discovery.com/videos/adventure-extreme-sports-risk-taking-explained.html>. Monasterio, Erik. "The Risks of Adventure Sports/People." Editorial. Alpinist 19 Nov. 2007. Alpinist.com. Alpinist, LLC. Web. 9 Dec. 2011. <http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web07f/rberik-monasterio-mountaineering-medicine>. Zieve, M.D., Dave, and Fred K. Berger, M.D. "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder." A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. Atlanta: A.D.A.M., 2011. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmedhealth/PMH0002518/>. Dobbs, David. "Beautiful Brains." Editorial. National Geographic. Teenage Brains -. National Geographic Society, Oct. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ 2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text>. "The Adolescent Brain." Brain Briefings (2007). Society for Neuroscience, Jan. 2007. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. <http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx? pagename=brainBriefings_Adolescent_brain>. Breivik, Gunnar. "The Quest for Excitement and the Safe Society." Philosophy, Risk and Adventure Sports. Comp. Mike J. McNamee. London: New York, 2007. 25. Print.