Study reveals that people do not become completely "adults" before the age of 30

At your 18th birthday, you may be thinking of becoming an adult, but a new study suggests this is not the case.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge claim that people do not become fully "mature" before the age of 30.

However, this varies greatly from one person to the other, with some people making the transition faster than others, according to experts.

The team thinks their findings could have "major implications" for the company.

Currently, the UK judicial system recognizes an 18 year old as a mature adult.

In fact, research has shown that a person of this age is still experiencing tumultuous brain changes that can affect behavior and susceptibility to mental health disorders.

Processes that involve increasing the conductivity of nerves, building neural networks and "suppressing" unwanted connections begin in the womb and continue for decades.

Brain disorders in the brain would explain the notoriously difficult behavior of adolescents, characterized by the character of comedian Harry Enfield, Kevin the teenager.

Professor Peter Jones of Cambridge University told reporters at a press conference in London: "What we are really saying is that we have a definition of when we go from childhood in adulthood seems more and more absurd.

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

He added, "I suppose that systems such as the education system, the health system and the legal system make it easier by providing definitions."

Professor Jones is one of the renowned international experts attending a meeting on neuroscience organized by the Academy of Medical Sciences in Oxford.

He suspected that, despite the legal definition of adulthood, experienced judges had recognized the difference between a 19-year-old defendant and a "hardened criminal" in his late 30s.

"I think the system fits what is hidden under our eyes, that people do not like the idea of ​​a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly," he said. -he declares.

"There is no childhood, and then of adulthood, people are on a path, they are on a trajectory."

American professor Daniel Geschwind, of 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.

Prof Geschwind added, "These are larger questions that go beyond science.

"If we take away one thing, it's that there are individual trajectories, (and) that development takes place over decades." But that varies from one individual to another. # 39; other. "

Research on serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia was a key topic of the meeting.

Formerly considered to have a purely genetic cause, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are now known to result from a complex interplay of interactions between genes and environmental influences.

Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed in older adolescents and the risk of developing the disease decreases considerably from the late twenties.

The pattern of incidence is thought to be related to brain development. Once the brain has selected its circuits and finally "matured", the risk of psychosis decreases considerably.

Professor Jones said studies have shown that urban dwellers, especially poor and immigrant populations, are at increased risk of serious mental disorders.

Urban life has produced a "powerful badtail" of environmental influences that could affect brain development, he explained.

He said: "Being a migrant does not specifically concern a particular group, but a minority within a majority.

"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.

Professor Jones spoke of a study of a population living in the suburbs of Paris, France, according to which being part of a minority group tripled the risk of schizophrenia.

An ongoing study in the United States, the brain study and cognitive development of adolescents, tracks the progress of nearly 12,000 children aged 9 to 10 years old looking for early signs of future mental problems.