Study: The human brain fails to mature until age 32

The study, led by researchers in the Cambridge Knowledge Science Unit and the MRC Brain, analysed scans of magnetic resonance (MRI) by the fusion of 3,802 people between birth and 90 years old.

The study, published in the magazine Nature Communications, offers the most comprehensive view of how nerve connections re-organize as we grow older and older.

“This study is the first to identify key stages of brain connections throughout human life”, Dr. Alexa Mousley, a Cambridge researcher who led the study.

She said that these insights give important contexts to what our brain can do best or be more sensitive to certain things, in different periods of our life”.

The team found that the brain's childhood toupology extends from east to about 9 years old, characterized by rapid growth of gray and white matter, as well as the shortening of early synapses.

The teenage transition brings ever more efficient networks, with the organization of white matter reaching a peak in the early 30s.

“around the age of 32, we see the biggest driving changes in brain connections and the largest general shift in the women's geox1>, Mousley said.

This moment marks the beginning of the long period of adults, a period of stability that lasts more than three decades.

Researchers say this phase corresponds to a broad “intelligence and personality display”.

A softer turning point comes around the age of 66 when early aging begins.

“Data suggests that a gradual re-organization of brain networks peaks between the 60s”, Mousley said, linking it to lowering white matter and increasing health risks such as hypertension.

The last era begins at about 83 years of age, while global connectivity decreases and the brain relies more on local networks.

“Looking back, many of us feel that our lives are characterized by various stages. It turns out that even the brain goes through these times”, said one author of the study, Prof. Duncan Astle. /Periscope/