Dr. Michelle Dickinson: New study reveals we don't reach adulthood until our 30s

We often think of brain development as something that happens in childhood, stabilises in adulthood, and then gradually declines. 

However new research published in the journal Nature Communications suggests our brains actually move through five distinct eras, each with its own strengths, vulnerabilities, and turning points. 

Researchers analysed MRI brain scans from nearly 4,000 people aged between newborn and 90 years old. Their goal was to understand how the brain’s internal wiring, changes over a lifetime. 

Dr. Michelle Dickinson joins Francesca Rudkin to break-down and analyse the study. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining me now with her science study of the week.
Doctor Michelde can say, good morning, Good morning. I don't
know whether to be slightly depressed about the study you've
brought in today or whether actually it just explains an auto.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Explains a lot. I think I thought this and I
was like, oh, I've learned a lot about my husband already.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, Hey, with a nineteen year old son, I was
just I was a little depressed about this news. It's
a study that's been taking a look at brain development,
and it's kind of worked out that we don't really
become real adults until our thirtis. Tell me about it.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, And anybody who owns probably a teenape or even
a son in their twenties goes, are they not grown
up yet? No, they haven't, according to science, No, their
brains are still adolescent until their thirties. So this is
a beautiful study. It's been published in Nature Communications, and
it has looked at four thousand MRA brain scan of

(01:07):
people age between newborn babies and ninety years old, and
they wanted to understand how do our brains change over
our lifetime and are there sort of eras that we
live in where our brains do different things? And do
they age in different ways? And if so, can we
categorize that? And they did. They found that we have
sort of well they've called five major epochs, which are

(01:28):
sort of areas of our brain where they're doing different things.
And so let's see where you sit depending on your
age or depending on the age of your children, if
you're questioning maybe their maturity. So here we are a
childhood lusts from when you are born until nine years
of age, and they basically said that that's a really
big period of learning and growth. Your brain is definitely

(01:50):
changing fast. Babies are born, they say, with an overabundance
of synapses, which are these tiny junctions that allow our
neurons or our brain cells to talk to each other.
And during childhood the brain begins this sort of cleanup
operation to go which are the important networks to get
on which ones do we just brush away? And so
this is why exposing your kids at this age to

(02:11):
everything keeps those pathways active and so they don't get
brushed away. But by the age of nine and nine
to thirty two. Apparently, as adolescents in our brains is
where our brains communication networks become increasingly efficient, and so
we refine these neural pathways. We get the signals to

(02:31):
travel faster between them, which means we become very good
at certain tasks that we sort of do repetitively, and
this supports dramatic growth in reasoning and planning, in emotional
regulation and social complexity, which we associate with becoming an adult. However,
this time of tremendous learning and adaptation also leads to
instability because the brain is still actively shaping itself. And

(02:55):
so there's a conversation here around some mental health or
mental fitness challenges because our brain is still just figuring
it out of cope.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think most of us were under the impression that
the probably got was completely wrong generalization. The male brain
wasn't fully formed until you're mid twenties. Yeah, you know,
so I think we all knew that. I'm a little
bit taken back that this actually is. It doesn't matter
whether you're a male or a female. No, it's thirty two.
That's a little longer than.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
I Yeah, we have a teenage brain, but two which
means we are more at risk from metal and health challenges,
from dealing with stress, and we are still trying to
figure out what we're good at and how to put
those pathways down. So yeah, if you do have a
child in their twenties and they seem like they're struggling,
it's okay. Their brain is still learning like they were
when they were nine, which was surprising this study, but great.

(03:43):
Then basically adulthood between thirty two and sixty six. Look,
it's where we've reached our most stable architecture in our brain.
It's where we figured out what we're good at and
what we're doing. A couple of things are happening behind
the scenes, which is just sort of become more specialized
and teenate did. But this is where our brain is
the most stable. Okay, early aging, sorry, team, but this

(04:05):
starts at six sixty six and last we're eighty three,
and this is where our brain starts to reorganize. So
we start to decrease the amount of white matter we
have in our brain, which means our brain is so
sort itself out, what are we keeping, what are we
getting rid of? So this this means you're more vulnerable
to health, mental health conditions again, so just be aware.
And then late aging eighty three and above, this is

(04:28):
where we get really good at what we do really well,
but we don't like change, so we get used to
well practiced skills, memories, routines. But you may have met
an older adult who doesn't want to do anything new.
That's because the part of the brain that used to
do that is not working anymore. The synapses aren't going
to that part anymore. So don't stress them out. Just
try and keep them doing the things they do and
they'll be really happy. And so yeah, basically the said

(04:50):
he said, we've got five parts of our brain now,
five aging conditions, and the ad lescent one is probably
longer than you thought.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Fascinating. Thank you so much. Michelle will talk me next week.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio