Scientists say that people are not full adults until the age of 30

According to neuroscience researchers, hard definitions of adulthood seem "increasingly absurd" before adults reach the age of 30.

While the UK's legal system currently recognizes an 18-year-old as an adult adult, scientists say that people have undergone significant changes in their brains for many years.

Recent research suggests that these changes can have significant effects on youth behavior and make them more vulnerable to mental health disorders.

Scientists say this new knowledge has major implications for society.

They spoke before a meeting of the Academy of Medical Sciences in Oxford, which focuses specifically on brain development.

Processes that involve the improvement of the conductivity of the nerves, the construction of neural networks and the "suppression" of unwanted connections begin in the uterus and continue for decades.

It is thought that a burst of upheaval in the brain explains the notoriously difficult behavior of teens, but does not necessarily end once people leave their adolescence.

"What we are really saying is that having a definition of when you are moving from childhood to adulthood seems increasingly absurd," said Professor Peter Jones, neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, at an event in London.

"It's a much more nuanced transition that takes place over three decades.

"Systems such as the education system, the health system and the legal system make it easy to provide definitions."

However, he stated that these systems were adapting and that despite the legal definition of adulthood, experienced judges recognized the difference between a 19-year-old defendant and a "criminal" hardened "in the late thirties.

"There is no childhood and then adulthood. People are on a trail, they are on a trajectory, "said Professor Jones.

Professor Daniel Geschwind, from the University of California at Los Angeles, emphasized the degree of individual variability in brain development.

He pointed out that, for practical reasons, education systems tended to erroneously favor groups rather than individuals.

Scientists have also discussed the impact that the environment could have on psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia, which result from a complex interplay of genetic and external influences.

The diagnosis of schizophrenia is more common in adolescents and young people in their early twenties, because once the brain has selected its circuits and finally "matured", the risk of psychosis decreases considerably.

Professor Jones said that urban dwellers, especially poor and immigrant populations, are at increased risk of mental disorders through a "powerful badtail" of environmental influences affecting brain development.

Studies have shown that minority populations can be up to three times more likely to suffer from schizophrenia.

"Being a migrant is not specifically about a particular group, but a minority within the majority," said Professor Jones.

"It's probably because you have to live constantly on the alert. I speak of the low level of vigilance of minorities when they live in host communities. "

Additional reports by PA

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