Windows of opportunity and vulnerability in brain development

Takao Hensch, professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and professor of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital, looks at periods of critical brain development. Surprisingly, these critical periods are not strictly tied to the chronological age of the individual. This gives new hope that in the future, we might be able to reopen a critical period in adulthood, making it possible to correct a problem or recover from a traumatic brain injury or acute stroke.

[alwynwatson]

It's not ageing that causes the end of these critical periods. The problem is that school degrades neuroplasticity and neurogenesis making people's brains decrepit by the time they're adults.