Hormonal changes that diminish brain function could predict the onset of antisocial behaviour among adolescents, according to a new UNSW study.

Memory, planning and the ability to foresee consequences of actions are disrupted in the mid-stages of puberty, according to research presented by a UNSW doctoral student, Suzanne Czech, in a study of 323 Sydney schoolchildren aged nine to 17 years.

Ms Czech suggests that hormonally induced brain changes during mid-puberty may be responsible for a temporary decrease in the brain’s “executive functions”, resulting in a temporary increase in antisocial behaviour.

Executive functions are the complex brain processes responsible for planning, organising and ordering behaviour, and for deciding which behaviours are appropriate in a given situation.

“Pre-pubescent and post-pubescent teens performed better in several tests of executive brain function than those who were midway through puberty," says Ms Czech.

"A deficit in these higher-order thinking skills could explain behaviours that might appear malicious,” says Ms Czech, who presented her findings to the fifth Australian and New Zealand Adolescent Health Conference, organised by the Children's Hospital at Westmead.

The findings had implications for teaching of adolescents, she said, because school assignments with long deadlines might be disproportionately difficult for young people whose ability to plan and take responsibility for their work was sabotaged by brain changes.

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Suzanne Czech is a doctoral student on international scholarship studying under the supervision of Dr Richard Kemp in the School of Psychology at UNSW.