MRI – fMRI has found that the brain continues to develop from adolescence into early adulthood
(emerging adulthood) ages 20 to 30 years old. This starts with the biological and physical
changes of puberty and ends at the age where people find a stable role in society. The prefrontal
cortex changes most dramatically during this time. The prefrontal cortex is bigger in humans
than any other species. The prefrontal cortex is involved in decision-making, critical thinking,
planning, stopping inappropriate behavior, social interaction and self-awareness. Gray matter
increases during childhood and Peaks during adolescence between the ages 10 to 12 years. Girls
develop slightly earlier than boys so they tend to Peak first. The reason why gray matter peaks
and begins to fall is because of synaptic pruning. Synaptic pruning is a fantastic ability to cut out
any unused or unwanted neurons to strengthen the neurons we use the most. Synaptic pruning
is affected by the environment of animals and humans. As humans, we are so good at reading
other people’s emotions and body language. “Medial prefrontal cortex activity in social cognition
tasks decreases during adolescence in 9 developmental fMRI studies.” The medial prefrontal
cortex decreases during the time of adolescence in making social decisions. Behavioral Studies
have shown an increase of activity of the medial prefrontal cortex in emerging adulthood from
adolescence. Normal adult mistakes in the behavioral studies found that adults made mistakes
on the director/no director tests about 50% of the time. 80% of children made the same
mistakes as adults did in ages 7 to 9 years old. Over the course of history there have been
written texts describing the same behaviors and attitudes of Children and adolescents in this
current day in age. This goes to show that the behavior of children in the past is very similar,
even the same from thousands of years ago. Risk-taking is associated with the limbic system. The
