HOW OUR BRAINS DECLINE AS WE AGE

The charts could one day be used as a clinical tool to help track patients’ brain development and diagnose neurodevelopmental disorders

The first comprehensive study of how the human brain changes over a lifetime could help doctors to monitor and diagnose neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s. The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Philadelphia, has produced a unique set of charts based on brain scans that range from those of a 15-week-old foetus all the way up to a 100-year-old adult.

So far, the researchers have identified a number of developmental milestones, including a rapid growth burst that begins at around 17 weeks after conception, when the brain is around 10% of its full size. This growth spurt then ends at around three years of age, when the brain has reached around 80% of its full size. They also found that the volume of grey matter, the part of the brain made up of neurons, peaks at around six years old before beginning to slowly decrease. White matter – the tissue that sends messages between different areas of grey matter – was found to peak at around 29 years old and then decline after we reach 50 years old.