Study suggests human brain development has four pivotal ‘turning points’ at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83
Scientists have identified five major “epochs” of human brain development in one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how neural wiring changes from infancy to old age.
The study, based on the brain scans of nearly 4,000 people aged under one to 90, mapped neural connections and how they evolve during our lives. This revealed five broad phases, split up by four pivotal “turning points” in which brain organisation moves on to a different trajectory, at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83 years.
“Looking back, many of us feel our lives have been characterised by different phases. It turns out that brains also go through these eras,” said Prof Duncan Astle, a researcher in neuroinformatics at Cambridge University and senior author of the study.
I get why they call the “30+” phase adult mode, but labelling it like that just opens up to people starting to ridicule anyone younger than 30+ as a child.
I mean, have you met someone in their 20s? ;p
Yup. I was also an idiot in my 20s. I still am, but i was then, too




