Brain imaging research has uncovered new details about how young brains continue to develop through the teenage years.

Vicki Haskopoulos, 10, takes regular violin lessons and practices three hours a week. It's long been known this kind of brain-building activity is vital for young children. But brain researcher Jay Giedd says it's just as important for teenagers to flex some mental muscle.

"The first five years are important, so are the next five, so are the next five after that. The brain doesn't grow smoothly and evenly. It grows in fits and starts, and different parts mature at different ages," said Jay Giedd, of the National Institutes of Health.

Giedd and his colleagues discovered this by creating a unique 3-D animation of the maturing brain. The dark coloring indicates regions of development. Using MRI technology, they scanned the brains of 13 healthy children and teenagers every two years over a 10-year-span.

The resulting images, published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal for the first time the sequence of dynamic brain development between the ages of 5 and 20.

"During the times when the brain is undergoing these great changes is the time when practice of a musical instrument or a sport or different studies may have a much greater impact than in earlier or later years," Giedd said.

Just how much greater is yet to be seen.

"As we continue to chart the human brain, that map will continue to be better populated with more information," neuroscientist Arthur Toga said.

Toga said that it does not matter if kids prefer science, sports, or strings, the important thing is that they keep using their heads.

Giedd said that the brain-scan study also highlights possible ways in which diseases such as schizophrenia and autism develop.

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