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l4mbch0ps t1_j8fting wrote

Reply to comment by Glittering_Airport_3 in Children as young as 4 years old show evidence of a network in the brain found in adults that tackles difficult cognitive problems, a new fMRI study found. Researchers were surprised, thinking it may take longer for the multiple demand network to differentiate in humans. by geoff199

What? No the science is increasingly showing that brain development goes on for much longer than we thought. Out to 25 years and beyond, before which you are working with an under developed brain. It's why we make such poor decisions as young adults.

Kids are definitely just dumb little people, because their brains only have rudimentary systems like the one described here.

Kids have accelerated learning in some areas, like language, but go try and teach a child how to perform a new skill, like cooking, dancing, drawing, etc. Their brain lacks development in critical areas to perform even at a basic level without lots of development. Meanwhile adults, even not particularly quick ones, can easily perform the simple neural tasks required to learn these new skills.

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joxeloj t1_j8gktry wrote

Kids are dumb but 25 is a pop sci meme based on extremely low levels of asymptotic but non-zero synaptic pruning and white development in the PFC not tied to any cognitive functions or behavioral changes. By 16 the vast majority of brain development is done and adult-level cognitive function is reached. By 18 you get adult-level psychosocial maturity. In the most extreme stretch of the data the latest I would say the brain is still meaningfully developing is 20 but I would personally draw the line at 18.

This is absolutely not the sole study I'm basing this on (it's consistent with decades of data), but if you want to read more here is a nice lay article about recent work characterizing brain development over the lifespan, and a nice summary figure. Here is the paper being summarized, which is somewhat approachable itself, with figure 3 being the most important summary figure. Note the general ideas are pretty consistent 20+ year old models of brain development

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