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When does adolescence really end?

n11/n12 said:
This is for a book I'm working on.

Just like the title says, generally speaking, at what age do most people's brains stop develping? In other words, at what age do we finally become adults?

I've heard that the the age is actually twenty-four (strangely enough, the same age you have to be to rent a car), but maybe someone here could point me towards a few peer-reviewed articles or web-sites.
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Early twenties is the current consensus. Here's an interesting introductory article from New scientist:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/teenagers/mg16522224.200

I tracked down some references for a rather noxious thread on age of consent a while ago. I'll see if I can find them again.
 
Thinktoomuch said:
By now, n11/n12, surely you will have realised, as I quickly did after joining this forum, that hoping to get here a serious answer to a serious scientific question you are assuming that:
- there is a member who has the specific knowledge you are asking
- this member actually happens to read your post
- this member has the time and the will to bother answering.
Given that chances of this happening are ridiculously small, all you get is wisecracks, mostly in good humour and worth a giggle, other just irritating.
So, unless you are so lucky that you would be better off trying a lottery, there are no shortcuts to doing your homework in the usual boring places, like university libraries. Google would be a better way to get some pointers...:)
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:p ;)
 
n11/n12 said:
This is for a book I'm working on.

Just like the title says, generally speaking, at what age do most people's brains stop develping? In other words, at what age do we finally become adults?

I've heard that the the age is actually twenty-four (strangely enough, the same age you have to be to rent a car), but maybe someone here could point me towards a few peer-reviewed articles or web-sites.
Click to expand...

Try: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/Publicat/teenbrain.cfm
 
I still think it's a poor question. Your brain never stop "developing" until you die. If I had the desire and commitment to learn to play piano, after a few (ok, many) years, my brain function would be radically altered in certain areas. So to me, the answer to the "what age the brain stops developing" question is arbitrary.

As one of the studies pointed out, there is probably a large variance in the development of different brains'.

One of the most interesting findings from their study is that for the subjects scanned twice, once at age 9 and again at age 11, many brain regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, showed a decrease in activity from time 1 to time 2. This was not found when one group of 9-year-olds was compared with a different group of 12-year-olds. The main implication is that cross-sectional studies are less sensitive to developmental
differences than longitudinal studies, perhaps because studies comparing different groups contain more variance. This finding should influence the design of future developmental brain imaging studies.
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I think a better questions would be:

What similarities are there between individuals brain anatomy/functionality at certain ages?

And:

What anatomical/functional changes occur in the brain as it ages?
 
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