Responsible for the vision area of the brain develop in adults
The visual cortex of the human brain continues to develop until 30-40 years. To such conclusion the canadian scientists. The results of their study published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
It is considered that the visual cortex of the brain (the area responsible for visual perception) fully develops in the first years of life. The authors expected to find that it ceases to change significantly five to six years. This would be consistent with previous animal studies and the General scientific and medical knowledge.
In the study, neuroscientists analyzed brain samples of 30 people who died at the age of 20 to 80 years. Studying proteins that activate neurons in the visual cortex, the scientists found that the age to which this area reaches maturity, is 36 years plus or minus 4.5 years.
“In our understanding of the brain there are large gaps. One of them is the idea that sensory areas of the brain developed during childhood and then remain stable. That’s wrong,” — said the head of the study, a neuroscientist at McMaster University Katherine Murphy.
The results may change the current practice, when therapy aimed at the treatment of certain disorders of vision, intended primarily for children, as it is believed that the brain of adults is not amenable to change.