Maturity

At what stage in our lives, do you think, our contemporary evolved brains are fully developed?  At age 2, 5, during puberty?  Did you know that the most advanced and evolved part of our brain, the prefrontal cortex, is not fully developed until age 23-25?  This is the part of our brain that executes commands and controls impulses.  Prefrontal cortex starts developing early on, but it is not fully developed till age 23-25.  Now imagine a society where individuals are physically mature, have high sexual drives, very little experience, and an undeveloped prefrontal cortex. They can drive, marry, have kids, have important responsibilities with little training or experience for today's fast paced and complex world.  They function with poor judgement, not enough empathy, nor self control.  Their prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for judgement, self-control, and empathy, is not fully developed.  In fact, researchers have linked high rates of car accidents among teenagers and young adults to this fact.  How would our world be different if we were all aware of this fact and considered it in different aspects of our society, such as education, rules and regulations?

That is what I learned today and thought about.  What did you learn today?