Brain’s life-long map: four turning points shape our abilities across a lifetime

A Cambridge-led study analyzed MRI diffusion scans from 3,802 people—from newborns to age 90—identifying four major turning points that divide life into five brain-wiring eras: birth to about age 9, adolescence to about 32, adulthood, early aging around 66, and late aging around 83. The evolving neural wiring correlates with changes in learning, memory, and intelligence, suggesting the brain’s development and aging follow a staged timeline that could inform education and elder care.