When is the brain fully developed?

https://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/02/18/at-what-age-is-the-brain-fully-developed/ Quoting:

It is widely debated as to which age the brain is considered “fully mature” or developed. In the past, many experts believed that the brain may have been done developing in the mid to late teens. Then along came some evidence to suggest that development may last until at least age 20. These days, a consensus of neuroscientists agree that brain development likely persists until at least the mid-20s – possibly until the 30s.

The fact that our brains aren’t developed until the mid 20s means that “legal adults” (those age 18+) are allowed to make adult decisions, without fully mature brains.  Someone who is 18 may make riskier decisions than someone in their mid-20s in part due to lack of experience, but primarily due to an underdeveloped brain. All behaviors and experiences you endure until the age of 25 have potential to impact your developing brain . . .

What does the prefrontal cortex do?
There are a variety of functions for which the prefrontal cortex is responsible. Although significant development of the prefrontal region occurs during adolescence, experts argue that it continues until (at least) our mid 20s.

Attention
Complex planning
Decision making
Impulse control
Logical thinking
Organized thinking
Personality development
Risk management
Short-term memory

https://www.inc.com/laura-montini/when-does-intelligence-really-peak-probably-later-than-you-think.html  Quoting:



Like every other part of the body, the brain starts to show the effects of age depressingly early. But that doesn't mean it's all downhill after high school. When it comes to cognitive ability and age, it's really a question of which types of intellect peak when. For some of them, the apex doesn't come until surprisingly far along.

Two new studies, which look at business-related cognitive skills, suggest that over our lifetimes, we reach the decline of certain abilities just as we're gaining ground in others.

For their study, Joshua Hartshorne of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Laura Germine of Massachusetts General Hospital looked at data from more than 48,000 participants. These individuals' cognitive abilities were assessed based on their performance on online exercises from gameswithwords.org and testmybrain.org, according to the Association of Psychological Science.

Here's what the research found:

* Information processing speed peaks earliest, around age 18 or 19
* Short-term memory is strongest at about age 25, before it begins to drop around age 35
* The ability to accurately identify others' emotions hits its peak during the 40s and 50s
* Vocabulary skills reach their height in the 60s and early 70s

Vocabulary skills were used as a measure of crystallized intelligence, or the ability to use acquired skills, knowledge, and experience. Another recent study also concluded that the older we get, the stronger crystallized intelligence grows.

Rachael M. Klein, a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota, studied 3,375 executive-level job candidates, ages 20 to 74. To measure fluid intelligence -- or logical reasoning -- she asked participants to do an activity involving sequences, and to measure crystallized intelligence, she asked participants to complete a vocabulary test.

Klein found that younger candidates out-scored their older counterparts on fluid intelligence quizzes. But older candidates once again dominated when it came to exercising crystallized intelligence skills.

Fun fact

The olfactory bulb and the hippocampus are two parts of the brain that are capable of neurogenesis. They continue to regenerate throughout life, well past ones 30s and 40s.

These two areas are involved with learning, memory, olfaction and mood, emotion.

Kinda cool the way ones sense of smell factors into memory and it is very good to know that so long is the brain stays healthy it can continue to grow, well into old age.

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Adult_neurogenesis


Adult neurogenesis is the process of generating new neurons which integrate into existing circuits after fetal and early postnatal development has ceased. In most mammalian species, adult neurogenesis only appears to occur in the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus. In addition there is a high level of adult neurogenesis in the olfactory epithelium (considered part of the peripheral nervous system) where olfactory receptor neurons are constantly replaced. The process appears more widespread but still limited in other vertebrate classes, having been described in select brain regions of certain birds, fish and reptiles. Furthermore, many invertebrates and vertebrates have neural regenerative capacities that involve neurogenesis (such as tail regeneration in salamanders).