A new study has found that adolescence doesn’t just last through our teens and early twenties, but in fact continues into our early thirties. Researchers at the University of Cambridge studied the brain scans of 4,000 people and discovered the brain goes through five distinct phases in life: childhood from birth to age 9, adolescence from age 9 to 32, adulthood from age 32 to 66, early aging from 66 to 83, and late aging from 83 onwards. During the adolescent phase, the brain’s connections undergo the biggest shift, becoming far more efficient but also more susceptible to the onset of mental health disorders. The brain then “peaks” at about age 32 and enters a period of stability—adulthood—that represents its longest era. During adulthood, intelligence and personality plateau, until connections in the brain begin changing again around age 66. At that point, the brain’s individual organs become increasingly separated into regions that work closely together, instead of coordinating across the whole brain.
Read it at BBC
