75 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: What does "the brain finishes developing at 25" really mean?
There are a lot of answers in this thread without references, so take what you read with a grain of salt.
Throughout history[1], the longstanding assumption in neurodevelopment was that the brain finished maturing by puberty. However, we now have evidence that this is wrong. Neuroimaging research in the last couple of decades has shown that this process continues through adolescence. One of the last areas to develop is the frontal lobe, which is in charge of executive functions such as planning and working memory. One of the ways you can measure development is by studying grey and white matter density using MRI scans. Evidence suggests that white matter development in the prefrontal cortex occurs in the early 20s or later. Whereas grey matter density gain in other regions continues up to age 30[2]. So basically, it seems like brain development continues into the late 20s. But it's impossible to put an exact age where it stops.
1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/
2: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12548289/
Whether we are still 'children' up until the late 20s is uncertain. Many neuroscientists argue that empirical support for a causal relationship between real-world behaviour and brain maturation processes is lacking[3].
3: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/
TLDR:
Current evidence points to brain development finishing in the late 20s. Some people use this to argue that we are still 'children' until then. However, direct evidence for this is severely lacking.
Source: references + PhD in neuroscience.
Comment by Princessbride917 at 29/06/2022 at 21:33 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
That was a great read.
Comment by TheAtticusBlake at 29/06/2022 at 23:09 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Saved comment. Thank you.