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Friday, May 21, 2004Red indicates more gray matter, blue less gray matter. Gray matter wanes in a back-to-front wave as the brain matures and neural connections are pruned. Areas performing more basic functions mature earlier; areas for higher order functions mature later. The prefrontal cortex, which handles reasoning and other 'executive' functions, emerged late in evolution and is among the last to mature. Studies in twins are showing that development of such late-maturing areas is less influenced by heredity than areas that mature earlier. And it looks as if the teenage years are a critical time for the development of mature, reasoned thinking. Makes sense. Too bad so many teens waste those years. posted by Sydney on 5/21/2004 08:04:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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