Incredibly Your Brain Now Matures Age 32... What This Means

Harry Enfield Character - Kevin

Here’s something most of us wish we’d known sooner:

You don’t become a neurological adult at 18. Or 21. Or even 25.

Your brain keeps developing, especially emotionally... until around 32.

If you’ve ever wondered why your teen years felt like emotional turbulence, or why your twenties felt like a rollercoaster of identity, mistakes, overreactions, passion, confusion, and growth… this is why.

The Brain’s First Big “Renovation”: Puberty

In childhood, the brain builds an excessive number of neural connections - far more than it needs. It’s like wiring a house with 10 times more cables than required “just in case.”

Then, at puberty, the brain says: “Right, let’s tidy up.”

This is called synaptic pruning, and it’s MASSIVE. It trims away the unused, inefficient connections to make the brain faster and more efficient.

And this is where teenage behaviour changes dramatically. Cue mood swings, impulsive decisions, sensitivity to rejection, identity searching, and the urge to push every boundary within sight.

Kevin the Teenager: When Comedy Meets Neuroscience

If you remember Harry Enfield’s Kevin the Teenager, you already know the stereotype:

Sweet child turns 13, and BAM!... instant slump, grunts, attitude, and baffled parents.

Funny? Yes. Biologically accurate? Surprisingly, yes.

That sudden shift is pruning + emotional circuits maturing faster than the rational ones.

The Five Stages of Brain Development (Cambridge Research)

A study analysing 4,000 brain scans identified five main stages:

1. Childhood (0–9): Wiring Everything

Exploration. Curiosity. Chaos. The brain builds connections at its fastest rate.

2. Adolescence (9–32): The Big Prune

The majority of pruning starts at puberty.Emotional systems are active and powerful… but rational thinking (the prefrontal cortex) is still under construction until around 32.

This means:

• Emotions can feel huge

• Reactions can be quicker than reflection

• Social feedback feels intensely important

• Identity is fluid and still forming

3. Adulthood (32–66): Stability Mode

Greater emotional regulation, clearer decision-making, more stable sense of self.

4. Early Ageing (66–83): Transition

Networks reorganise; some cognitive functions slow, but wisdom and pattern recognition strengthen.

5. Late Ageing (83+): Loosening Networks

Connectivity reduces, but the capacity for adaptation remains - plasticity never disappears.

So What Does This Mean for You?

If your twenties felt messy, emotional, chaotic, and full of “learning experiences”… that wasn’t failure.

That was development.

If you still struggle with emotional reactions now, you’re not broken. Your brain is doing exactly what human brains do:grow, prune, reorganise, adapt.

How to Support Your Still-Evolving Brain

Here are practical tools that help:

• Pause before reacting - it interrupts automatic wiring

• Notice emotional triggers - labelling emotions reduces their intensity

• Create tiny habits - repetition strengthens healthier neural pathways

• Seek connection - social bonds stabilise emotional circuits

• Reflect on patterns, not individual moments

Start your next brain upgrade today

Choose one emotional habit you’d like to shift -

Irritation

Overthinking

Defensiveness

People-pleasing

Whatever shows up most often.

For the next 7 days, pause when it appears and choose one different response.

Small shifts. Big rewiring.Your brain is still shaping your future - so shape it with intention.

For clients who feel overwhelmed or stuck

If your emotions feel bigger than your ability to manage them, you’re not broken - your brain is still evolving.

Let’s work with it, not against it. Book a session today. Book here: https://www.ndny.uk/book-online