REAL LIFE NEWS: YOU DON’T GROW UP TILL YOUR MID-TWENTIES
by Hazed
Here in the UK there is a debate about whether the age at which a person can vote should be lowered. It’s currently set at 18, but some people advocate changing it to 16.
Leaving aside the political ramifications of such a change, some new research may lead you to think that rather than lowering it, the voting age should be raised! That’s because it shows that the brains of young people do not fully mature to their adult state until the mid-twenties.
Beatriz Luna, a psychiatrist from The Pittsburgh School of Medicine, believes that as young people leave home and fend for themselves, the adolescent desires of sensation-seeking and novelty in the brain increase. Previously, it was thought that such desires peak at 15, but new studies indicate they carry on until around 25.
The research has found that the part of the brain known as the striatum, which is stimulated by rewards such as pleasure and sensation, remain hyper-active until the mid-twenties.
It is this part of the brain that works with the pre-fontal cortex, or “planning centre”, to drive curiosity and experimentation.
“Sensation seeking, which is really information seeking, novelty seeking, is evident across species and human societies,” Prof Luna said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in San Jose, California. “I’m saying this is combining with a brand new shiny car called the pre-frontal cortex. The adolescent is, like, ‘Oh, this is great, I can plan’, but they’re doing it in the service of this heightened sensitivity to motivation.”
Prof Luna is continuing to conduct research into the way the brain changes as adulthood proceeds.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/adulthood-begins-at-25-says-new-research-10046934.html
