\n<\/p>\n
Scientists have identified five major \u201cepochs\u201d of human brain development in one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how neural wiring changes from infancy to old age.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cturning points\u201d in which brain organisation moves on to a different trajectory, at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back, many of us feel our lives have been characterised by different phases. It turns out that brains also go through these eras,\u201d said Prof Duncan Astle, a researcher in neuroinformatics at Cambridge University and senior author of the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding that the brain\u2019s structural journey is not a question of steady progression, but rather one of a few major turning points, will help us identify when and how its wiring is vulnerable to disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
The childhood period of development was found to occur between birth until the age of nine, when it transitions to the adolescent phase \u2013 an era that lasts up to the age of 32, on average.<\/p>\n
In a person\u2019s early 30s the brain\u2019s neural wiring shifts into adult mode \u2013 the longest era, lasting more than three decades. A third turning point around the age of 66 marks the start of an \u201cearly ageing\u201d phase of brain architecture. Finally, the \u201clate ageing\u201d brain takes shape at around 83 years old.<\/p>\n
The scientists quantified brain organisation using 12 different measures, including the efficiency of the wiring, how compartmentalised it is and whether the brain relies heavily on central hubs or has a more diffuse connectivity network.<\/p>\n
From infancy through childhood, our brains are defined by \u201cnetwork consolidation\u201d, as the wealth of synapses \u2013 the connectors between neurons \u2013 in a baby\u2019s brain are whittled down, with the more active ones surviving. During this period, the study found, the efficiency of the brain\u2019s wiring decreases.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, grey and white matter grow rapidly in volume, so that cortical thickness \u2013 the distance between outer grey matter and inner white matter \u2013 reaches a peak, and cortical folding, the characteristic ridges on the outer brain, stabilises.<\/p>\n
In the second \u201cepoch\u201d of the brain, the adolescence era, white matter continues to grow in volume, so organisation of the brain\u2019s communications networks is increasingly refined. This era is defined by steadily increasing efficiency of connections across the whole brain, which is related to enhanced cognitive performance. The epochs were defined by the brain remaining on a constant trend of development over a sustained period, rather than staying in a fixed state throughout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re definitely not saying that people in their late 20s are going to be acting like teenagers, or even that their brain looks like that of a teenager,\u201d said Alexa Mousley, who led the research. \u201cIt\u2019s really the pattern of change.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n She added that the findings could give insights into risk factors for mental health disorders, which most frequently emerge during the adolescent period.<\/p>\n At around the age of 32 the strongest overall shift in trajectory is seen. Life events such as parenthood may play a role in some of the changes seen, although the research did not explicitly test this. \u201cWe know that women who give birth, their brain changes afterwards,\u201d said Mousley. \u201cIt\u2019s reasonable to assume that there could be a relationship between these milestones and what\u2019s happening in the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n From 32 years, the brain architecture appears to stabilise compared with previous phases, corresponding with a \u201cplateau in intelligence and personality\u201d based on other studies. Brain regions also become more compartmentalised.<\/p>\n The final two turning points were defined by decreases in brain connectivity, which were believed to be related to ageing and degeneration of white matter in the brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scientists have identified five major \u201cepochs\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[19731,2568,2121,442,16533,2067,3497,384,799],"class_list":{"0":"post-35322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-30s","9":"tag-adult","10":"tag-brain","11":"tag-early","12":"tag-eras","13":"tag-mode","14":"tag-neuroscience","15":"tag-scientists","16":"tag-starting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}