Penn Medicine Study Reveals New Brain Development Sequence Through Adolescence

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania has found that brain development does not occur uniformly across the brain, but follows a newly identified developmental sequence. Brain regions that support cognitive, social, and emotional functions appear to remain malleable longer than other brain regions, rendering youth sensitive to socioeconomic environments through adolescence. The findings reveal that reductions in brain plasticity occur earliest in “sensory-motor” regions, such as visual and auditory regions, and occur later in “associative” regions, such as those involved in higher-order thinking (problem solving and social learning).