Young people on TikTok and beyond are obsessed with the Frontal Lobe theory, which suggests your brain fully develops around the age of 25 – but is it that simple?
The frontal lobe is the anterior area of the human brain, which is responsible for helping you carry out a range of cognitive and physical functions. And, thanks to Frontal Lobe theory – a popular claim that suggests that human brains only begin to fully develop around the age of 25, the front area of the brain has been a rather hot topic of discussion on social media in recent weeks. But, according to a neuroscientist, many of the takes on the so-called frontal lobe theory may be guilty of oversimplifying how the brain actually works.
The Frontal Lobe Theory takes over TikTok
Once you reach the age of 25, you will have an ethereal moment of self-discovery – in which a switch will flick in your brain, granting you a new sense of maturity and wisdom.
At least, that’s how a lot of people on TikTok make it seem.
While it is generally accepted among neuroscientists that the brain does not fully develop until around the age of 25, a number of young people have taken to the internet to discuss the moment they first realized they were “fully” cognitively developed, such as the user below who playfully recalled the exact moment in time in which their frontal lobe development dawned on them:
It’s a real thing.
What do we really know about brain development?
But, according to one rather impassioned writer and neuroscientist expert – things aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem when it comes to the frontal lobe.
In a fiery and substantial thread uploaded to Twitter, author Dean Burnett tore apart the Frontal Lob theory – describing the widely circulated claims about the magic number 25 as “spurious” and based on “wilful ignorance”.
“Saying ‘the brain stops developing at age 25’ because you didn’t study anyone older is like saying “Olympic sprinters are only capable of running for 100m” wrote Burnett, in a thread that was viewed over 1.9 million times. “I mean, they *clearly* can go for longer. That’s just when the race ends. It’s not the same thing.”
Rubbishing the idea that your brain completes its development after 25 years, the writer added: “In truth, your brain likely never stops ‘developing’. We’re learning things, updating our neural connections and networks, for as long as we live. If we didn’t, we’d just be frozen in place. A non-developing brain is basically static. Which means, dead.”
Your brain never stops developing
Essentially, what Burnett is arguing is that while your brain may not be fully mature until it is 25, this does not mean that your brain finished developing at this age – nor does it mean that brains are useless before humans turn 25.
“E.g. your lungs are still developing/growing, until your early twenties. But last I checked, everyone under 20 is still capable of breathing just fine. Better than most people, if anything,” wrote Burnett. “Because ‘not fully mature’ is in no way the same thing as ‘doesn’t work properly’.”
“There seems to be this idea that an ‘underdeveloped’ brain is like a half-built house: not fit for purpose until completed”.
“In reality, it’s more like evolution. Every step on the evolutionary ladder is a fully functioning species, they just change over time”.
Summing up his arguments, the neurology enthusiast wrote: “Point is, it honestly doesn’t matter what issue it’s being applied to, the whole ‘Those under 25 have underdeveloped brains’ argument doesn’t hold up any way you slice it.
“It’s often just an easy way of dismissing the valid perspective of younger people. Which isn’t good.”
