New Study Shows 'Teen' Brain Development Continues to Age 32

(Psychology Today) 

Key points

• The brain's infrastructure and default settings develop, changes, and organizes into the thirties.
• Researchers identified epochs of structural brain development, with the critical period from 9-32 years old.
• Early substance abuse may alter the brain's developmental trajectory, forever changing reward circuits.

For decades, my colleagues and I advanced the premise that early substance use—nicotine, alcohol, or cannabis (or other addicting drugs)—interferes with critical maturation stages, particularly adolescence. Some questioned the science behind these premises, while others said it was propaganda from people disapproving of drugs like cannabis to justify their views. Despite this, clinicians often conveyed the cautionary: “The adolescent brain is still developing,” or “Drugs hurt the teenage brain.”

Recently, these statements received strong support from research that provides a framework for understanding how the developing brain changes and when those changes occur, noting that specific periods are disproportionately vulnerable. The Nature Communications study by Alexa Mousley and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, Topological Turning Points Across the Human Lifespan, provided this framework. By analyzing more than 4,000 diffusion MRI scans from birth to age 90, researchers identified major turning points in structural brain topology. The 9–32 years epoch, encompassing adolescence and young adulthood, emerged as the most topologically-dynamic period of life.

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