Brain immaturity can be deadly

I wasn't particularly suprised when "Researchers" discovered that the region that inhibits impulsive behaviour is not completely formed until the age of 25. I'm still waiting for mine to kick in.

After spending a few years looking thoughtfully at the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex, Dr Jay Giedd was inspired to say:

We'd thought the highest levels of physical and brain maturity were reached by the age of 18, maybe earlier, so this threw us. That makes adolescence a dangerous time, when it should be the best.

Maybe adolescence is 'the best time' because you have an underdeveloped sense of self-preservation, not in spite of it. Although frankly I find people who reminisce about their best years during High School to be somewhat tragic. Dr Jay Giedd obviously aspires to have a complete lack of freedom, outside of a limited context. Either that, or his dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex is filtering out how miserable he was.