As humans reach four significant “turning points” in brain development at the ages of 32, 66, and 83, according to a new study, adolescence can continue until the age of 32.
The study examined nearly 4, 000 brain scans of participants ranging in age up to 90, as reported on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
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Using this information, researchers analyzed the development of the brain and discovered that humans go through five “brain phases” as they grow, mature, and change, each with four significant life turning points.
Importantly, they discovered that changes in early adolescence do not occur until the human personality and intelligence “plateau” and “stabilize” until the age of 32.
Which five phases are there?
According to the study, there are five distinct phases in brain development and ageing:
- From birth to age nine, from birth to age nine.
- adolescence, nine to 32
- Adulthood – 32 to 66
- Ageing from 66 to 83 is how old you are.
- Late ageing begins at 83.
When does a person’s brain change from one phase to the next?
Researchers found that the brain’s development at the ages of nine, 32, 66, and 83 was the most important as it adapted to new circumstances and circumstances between birth and old age.
The shifts are characterized by changes in personality, personality stabilization, “reorganisation,” and decline.
These are described further as follows:
0 to 9 years old from birth.
The brain’s grey and white matter quickly grew during this time.
White matter transmits that information to other parts of the nervous system, according to information from Johns Hopkins Medical in the United States.
According to Johns Hopkins, “white matter describes the lighter inner region of the brain while grey matter describes the darker outer region.” This is the spinal cord’s reversed arrangement: the white matter is inside and the grey matter is inside.
The authors of the new study claim that “the first few years of life are marked by synapses [the junctions where neurons meet and communicate with one another] and rapid increases in grey and white matter volume.
This age also coincides with the start of puberty, which occurs between the ages of eight and thirteen for females and between nine and fourteen for males, triggering significant hormone changes and significant neurological changes, it added.
Additionally, according to the report, hormone changes and a “neurobiological shift” led to an “increased risk” of mental health, cognitive, and behavioral disorders.
9 to 32 years old.
Prior to the age of 20, it was believed that adolescence started with puberty and ended with the age of 20. The study found that while puberty is the study’s starting point, the study’s conclusion is less clear.
According to the researchers, “the transition to adulthood is influenced by cultural, historical, and social factors, making it context-dependent rather than purely biological change.”
Our findings point to the possibility that adolescent topological development begins at around the age of 32 before brain networks launch a new topological development trend in Western nations (such as the UK and the United States of America).
The study found that, in contrast to other turning points in life, the brain experiences the “most directional changes and a significant shift in trajectory” by the age of 32, as this is when the brain’s white matter integrity and volume are rapidly increasing.
The authors did not provide an explanation for why this is the case in Western nations or provide an explanation of how adolescence persists in people in other parts of the world.
Adulthood – 32 to 66
The study found that while brain development accelerates rapidly during the first two stages of life, the longest phase, adulthood, is where the brain develops more slowly.
According to the study, “This period of network stability also corresponds to a plateau in personality and intelligence.”
Early ageing – 66 to 83
Although white matter integrity is declining during this stage, the brain does exhibit subtle changes in its connection patterns.
The brain no longer coordinates as a single whole, coordinating more independently in various regions.
With dementia and high blood pressure for many, both of which can cause the early stages of brain ageing, the early 60s represent a significant change in health and cognition.
Ageing later, at 83 years old.
Due to the small sample size, the study’s findings correlated with a declining trend in brain connectivity, the authors said, despite the lack of information on this stage of the brain’s development.
This may point to a true weakening relationship between structural brain topology in later life, they continued.
What makes this significant?
The most important finding of the report is the new study of adolescence.
Adolescence varies between 10 and 19 years old, according to the World Health Organization. Adolescence ended in the 20s, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal in 2018.
However, one of the study’s authors, Duncan Astle, a professor of neuroinformatics at Cambridge University in England, claimed that the new report advances our understanding of the brain’s vulnerabilities.
Source: Aljazeera
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