Overview
- The peer‑reviewed Nature Communications study was led by Alexa Mousley with senior authorship from Duncan Astle at the University of Cambridge.
- Researchers identified turning points near ages 9, 32, 66 and 83 that separate five structural epochs, with the most pronounced reconfiguration occurring around 32.
- From roughly 32, the brain enters its longest adult plateau in which overall architecture stabilizes for about three decades.
- Childhood shows rapid growth in gray and white matter and a notable shift around age 9, while the adolescent epoch to the early 30s sees rising network efficiency linked to better cognitive performance.
- Later-life transitions feature declining connectivity associated with white-matter degeneration, and the authors caution these are structural trajectories rather than behavioral labels and that life events such as parenthood were not tested.