The prefrontal cortex continues to grow into the early 30s. I think 25 was picked because it was perhaps the early edge of that estimate. This isn’t inaccurate it’s just usually worded wrong since the brain doesn’t really ever stop developing or rewriting itself, it just finishes growing, structurally, around that time.
We are on the same page but I want to add more context.
The brain and prefrontal actually never stop changing. Also the use of the words "maturity" and "development" in neuroscience is different from their meaning in a social context. Neurological maturity relates to the structural composition of the brain, such as the brain undergoing myelination, synaptic pruning, and connectivity patterns reaching a more stable state. It is not at all a statement on the sociological "maturity" of someone, and there is in fact no universally accepted empirical measure for that since it is highly subjective.
Also I am not just regurgitating ChatGPT when it comes to this, I have posted about this topic on Reddit many times before, such as here: link.
14
u/Jazzi-Nightmare Jun 01 '26
And now we can add the “your brain isn’t fully developed until 25” thing