New research from the UK shows the brain continues to develop after childhood and puberty, and is not fully developed until people are well into their 30s and 40s. The findings contradict current theories that the brain matures much earlier. […]
The prefrontal cortex is the region at the front of the brain just behind the forehead, and is an area of the brain that undergoes the longest period of development. It is an important area of the brain for high cognitive functions such as planning and decision-making, and it is also a key area for social behavior, social awareness, for empathy and understanding and interacting with other people, and various personality traits.
PhysOrg: Brain is not fully mature until 30s and 40s
I imagine this will cause some problems for personality theory.
(via Richard Yonck)
January 4, 2011 at 3:16 pm
“15. And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning [period] is thirty months. [He grows] until, when he reaches maturity and reaches [the age of] forty years, he says, “My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to work righteousness of which You will approve and make righteous for me my offspring. Indeed, I have repented to You, and indeed, I am of the Muslims.”
16. Those are the ones from whom We will accept the best of what they did and overlook their misdeeds, [their being] among the companions of Paradise. [That is] the promise of truth which they had been promised.”
(Quran, 46: 15-16)
January 5, 2011 at 10:48 am
Personally, I’m hoping they’ll eventually find that the brain doesn’t finish developing until one’s 50’s or, by that time, maybe the 60’s or 70’s. You know, some point in the future from my current age. Of course, as someone once said, you’re only young once, but you can be immature forever.