• Question: how old are you when your brain is fully devoloped

    Asked by taku11 to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi Taku11, they used to think that your brain was fully developed at 18 months, now it is probably in your late teen years. That’s not to say that it wouldn’t grow with more memories after this point. Until your teens you are still making new connections in your brain and setting what is moral and ethically.

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I heard recently that it’s around your early 20’s when the brain finally finished developing. That probably explains a lot of undergraduate student behaviour 🙂

      This was the result of a brain scan study – it showed that our brain actually became less complex as it stopped needing some unncessary structures.

    • Photo: William Eborall

      William Eborall answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I guess it depends on what you mean by fully developed. When a baby is born the brain is developed enough to carry out all of the bodies functions needed to keep it alive.

    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hello again Taku!

      I’ve been looking into consciousness recently for Wonders, and it’s amazing that a foetus (a baby that is growing inside a female’s womb before it is born) has consciousness of its surroundings, and senses to experience the environment that it is in. There has been recent debate that they may feel pain earlier on in the pregnancy than people realised, and actually before the final cut off date for abortions to take place. It adds a whole new level to the argument of whether abortions are killing an innocent, conscious life, or whether it’s just a bunch of cells.

      Wow, too much to think about for a Tuesday night!

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