: 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

Alright, imagine your brain is like a construction site. The prefrontal cortex is the boss overseeing rational thinking. Now, at around age 25, the boss stops expanding the site, but that doesn’t mean the workers (your brain) can’t keep building and improving. While the boss doesn’t grow, the workers can still get better at complex tasks, so you can continue to develop more complex reasoning skills even if the boss isn’t expanding anymore.