Adolescence, the period between puberty and adulthood, entails significant changes in psychological, emotional, and social processes and is often linked to challenging behavior, including moodiness, defiance, and substance use. This period also poses a risk for mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia.
According to neuroscience, adolescence involves the development of executive function and higher-order cognitive skills like decision-making. A new “big data” study reveals the precise point when executive function matures. The results were published in the journal Nature Communications, pinpointing the threshold between adolescence and adulthood, indicating a shift towards adult-like thinking in adolescents.
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Researchers aggregated results from four large independent studies involving nearly 10,800 individuals aged between 8 and 35 years. The analysis revealed that executive function reaches maturity between 18 and 20 years of age, marking a distinct transitional phase from adolescence to adulthood.
The brain keeps changing
Executive function heavily relies on the prefrontal cortex, which undergoes protracted maturation during adolescence. However, brain imaging studies show that prefrontal cortex maturation continues well into the individual’s third decade of life, suggesting an extended period of growth beyond observed cognitive maturity.
Lead researcher, Brenden Trevo-Clemmens, mentions the plan to investigate executive function in real-world contexts to better understand the variability within and between individuals as adolescents transition into adulthood and experience mental health presentations associated with executive function.
