Brain 4 Phase: Our brain is a precious gift of nature’s craftsmanship. It does everything in automatic mode. We often think that as our age increases, the capacity of our brain also increases. If you also think like this then you are wrong because the brain has a different stage of intelligence. Scientists have exposed this secret and claimed that the brain remains in adolescence till the age of 32 years. That means, till the age of 32, your mind does not attain maturity and wisdom does not become like that of adults.
Adolescence of the brain till 32 years
5 different stages of the brain
Researchers said that the brain goes through its 5 stages. These are mainly four stages but old age has been divided into two stages. According to the report, childhood of the brain lasts from birth to 9 years. After this comes adolescence which lasts from 9 to 32 years. Maturity of the brain occurs between 32 years to 66 years of age. After this comes old age. Old age goes through two stages. Early old age comes from 66 to 83 years and final old age comes after 83 years. Dr. Alexa Mousley, the lead author of the research, told the BBC that the brain keeps rewiring itself throughout life. It is always strengthening and weakening its connections and this change is not a uniform process, it has ups and downs and different phases. Some people’s brains may reach these key ages earlier or later than others, but researchers say these ages appear very clearly in the data. These patterns were only uncovered because the study involved large amounts of brain scans. This study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Childhood stage of brain- In this first stage, the brain rapidly grows in size and begins to lose extra connections (called synapses) between cells. These connections are formed in large quantities at the time of birth. In this condition the efficiency of the brain decreases. It works just like a child wandering here and there in the park without any direction, going wherever he wants. In this condition one is unable to reach from point A to B directly.
Adolescence – This change begins suddenly around the age of nine, when the connections in the brain undergo a period of extremely rapid and drastic refinement. According to Dr. Mousley, this is the most profound and largest change that occurs between the brain stages. It is during this period that the risk of developing mental health disorders is highest. This time usually starts around puberty. But now there is evidence that its end comes much later than we previously believed. Earlier it was considered limited to teenage years only. Subsequently, neuroscience showed that it continues till the age of 20 and now research shows that it increases till the early 30s. This is the only stage of the brain in which the network of neurons becomes even more efficient.
adulthood i.e. adult– After the age of 32, the brain enters its longest and stable phase, which lasts for about three decades. During this period, the changes in the brain are much slower than before, but this is where we see that the improvement in brain efficiency now slowly starts to reverse, i.e. it starts decreasing. According to Dr. Mousley, this change corresponds to a stable level of intelligence and personality that many of us experience in ourselves or in others.
Early old age – This phase starts at the age of 66 but it is not a sudden or rapid decline. Instead, there are gradual changes in the patterns of brain connections. Instead of the coordinated functioning of the entire brain, the brain now begins to be divided into separate areas, each functioning with stronger connections on its own.
advanced old age- After this, at the age of 83 we enter the final stage. Data for this group was sparse because it was difficult to find enough healthy brains to scan. The changes occurring in the brain in this stage are similar to those of early old age but occur more rapidly.
