‘Your brain isn’t fully formed until you’re 25’: A neuroscientist demolishes the greatest mind myth
You may heard that if you’re under 25, your brain isn’t fully developed yet. It's an adage supposing that individuals under 25 can’t think things through or make rational decisions, and so are less responsible than older folk. This logic has now formed the basis of official government advice, sentencing, and more.
Despite its prevalence, there’s no actual data set or specific study that can be invoked or pointed at as the obvious source of the claim that ‘the human brain stops developing at age 25’.
It could be a misunderstanding, stemming from brain scanning studies which looked at subjects up to the age of 25. But that’s like saying sprinters can only run 100 metres at most after watching the 100m final at the Olympics. The limit is imposed by the context, not biology.
Others argue that 25 is simply a pleasing-sounding number, and the idea caught on purely as a result. Stranger myths have spread this way – looking at you, ‘we only use 10 per cent of our brains’.
