Overview
- Researchers report four population‑level turning points in brain connectivity around ages 9, 32, 66 and 83 that segment life into five stages from infancy through late aging.
- The study, published in Nature Communications, analyzes more than 4,200 scans centered on 3,802 individuals aged 0–90 using diffusion MRI with graph‑theory and dimensionality‑reduction methods.
- Network efficiency peaks in the early thirties, a prolonged adult plateau extends roughly from 32 to 66, and aging‑related connectivity decline becomes detectable around the mid‑60s.
- A late‑life shift from global to more local connectivity appears after about 83, though conclusions there are tentative due to fewer scans in the oldest group.
- Authors highlight implications for education, mental‑health support and policy in the twenties, while cautioning that individual variability and the cross‑sectional design require replication and longitudinal follow‑up.