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This finding makes a lot of intuitive sense to me, and means that my wife and I had our children while we were still adolescents ourselves!

The brain goes through five distinct phases in life, with key turning points at ages nine, 32, 66 and 83, scientists have revealed.

Around 4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties when we “peak”.

They say the results could help us understand why the risk of mental health disorders and dementia varies through life.

The brain is constantly changing in response to new knowledge and experience – but the research shows this is not one smooth pattern from birth to death.

Instead, these are the five brain phases:

  • Childhood - from birth to age nine
  • Adolescence - from nine to 32
  • Adulthood - from 32 to 66
  • Early ageing - from 66 to 83
  • Late ageing - from 83 onwards

[…]

Unsurprisingly adolescence starts around the onset of puberty, but this is the latest evidence suggesting it ends much later than we assumed. It was once thought to be confined to the teenage years, before neuroscience suggested it continued into your 20s and now early 30s.

This phase is the brain’s only period when its network of neurons gets more efficient. Dr Mousely said this backs up many measures of brain function suggesting it peaks in your early thirties, but added it was “very interesting” that the brain stays in the same phase between nine and 32.

[…]

The study did not look at men and women separately, but there will be questions such as the impact of menopause.

Source: BBC News

Image: Wiki Sinaloa