: The prefrontal cortex (responsible for rational thinking) stops growing at age 25. Does that mean that one’s ability to conduct a complex reasoning only decreases after age 25 ?

Question

Or is that unrelated ? I guess what I’m wondering is are we able to produce more and more complex reasoning as we age despite the fact that our prefrontal cortex only shrinks as time goes by ?

In: Biology

Answer 1

It not growing doesn’t mean it starts shrinking, though as a commenter below shows, there is a loss with age. The PFC isn’t fully formed until our 20’s, so younger people have a more difficult time weighing pros and cons and seeing the potential consequences of their behaviour.

Edit: being better