Between 27 and 36 Years: The High Point Of Human Attention

This study investigated how the brain's ability to focus and ignore distractions changes throughout life. The results showed that this ability grows during childhood and adolescence, peaks between the ages of 27 and 36, and then begins to decline with aging. The brain also changes how it uses its two sides, possibly as a way to adapt to loss.

Scientists know that many of our mental abilities change throughout life. During childhood and adolescence, they grow rapidly; in young adulthood, they usually peak; and after that, they begin to decline slowly, accompanying aging.

Among these abilities is so-called cognitive control, which is the ability to direct attention, organize thoughts, deal with distractions, and maintain focus on a goal. This function is essential for activities such as planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and even everyday tasks, such as being able to read quietly in a library even when there is noise around.

This study investigated how the brain's ability to focus and ignore distractions changes throughout life. The results showed that this ability grows during childhood and adolescence, peaks between the ages of 27 and 36, and then begins to decline with aging. The brain also changes how it uses its two sides, possibly as a way to adapt to loss.

Scientists know that many of our mental abilities change throughout life. During childhood and adolescence, they grow rapidly; in young adulthood, they usually peak; and after that, they begin to decline slowly, accompanying aging.

Among these abilities is so-called cognitive control, which is the ability to direct attention, organize thoughts, deal with distractions, and maintain focus on a goal. This function is essential for activities such as planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and even everyday tasks, such as being able to read quietly in a library even when there is noise around.

In young people and adults, this control is usually at its best. However, in children, adolescents and the elderly, it may not be as efficient, which affects behaviors and decisions.

Previous studies have shown that this ability follows an inverted U-shaped pattern: it grows during childhood and adolescence, peaks in early adulthood, and then gradually declines with age. This pattern had already been observed in both behavioral tests and studies of brain structure, such as the size and volume of gray matter and white matter.

Despite this, many questions remained about how exactly brain activity related to cognitive control changes throughout life. In some studies, older adults showed less brain activity, suggesting decline; in others, they showed more activity, which may be a sign of compensation by the brain, which recruits other areas to maintain performance. These contradictions necessitated a larger study to understand what actually happens.

To investigate this, researchers at Hangzhou Normal University, China, conducted a meta-analysis, which is a way of pooling and analyzing data from many different studies. Rather than examining a single group of people, they combined results from 139 neuroimaging studies (techniques that allow observation of brain function), including 3,765 participants between the ages of 5 and 85.

All of these studies used cognitive conflict tasks, such as the famous Stroop task, in which a person must name the ink color of a word even when the written word represents another color, or the Flanker task, in which one must focus on a central stimulus while ignoring surrounding distractions. These tasks are very useful because they directly test the ability to maintain focus in the face of conflicting information.

Stroop Test

The methodology was quite detailed. First, the researchers used advanced statistical techniques that allow them to identify which brain regions are most active during these tasks at different ages. Then, they applied mathematical models capable of detecting patterns of change across the lifespan.

One of these models, called the generalized additive model, was especially important because it can capture non-linear patterns, such as the inverted U-shape. They also compared several mathematical models to determine which best described the trajectories of brain activity.

The results revealed two main findings. First, brain activity during cognitive control does indeed follow an inverted U-shaped trajectory. That is, children show lower levels, these levels increase and peak between the ages of 27 and 36, and then begin to decline as age advances.

Second, the researchers observed interesting differences in how the two sides of the brain (left and right hemispheres) participate in these tasks. Young and old people showed greater activation on the left side compared to young adults, who exhibited more balanced activation between the hemispheres.

In summary, this study showed that the brain's ability to cope with distractions and maintain focus reaches its peak efficiency in early adulthood and then declines with aging. Furthermore, it revealed that the brain changes how it distributes its activity between the hemispheres throughout life, which may be a sign of adaptation.

These findings help us better understand how the human mind develops and ages, and may pave the way for more personalized cognitive training at different stages of life.

READ MORE:

The lifespan trajectories of brain activities related to conflict-driven cognitive control

Zhenghan Li, Isaac T. Petersen, Lingxiao Wang, Joaquim Radua, Guochun Yang, and Xun Liu

Science Bulletin, Available online 23 August 2025

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2025.08.038

Abstract: 

Cognitive control is fundamental to human goal-directed behavior. Understanding its trajectory across the lifespan is crucial for optimizing cognitive function throughout life, particularly during periods of rapid development and decline. While existing studies have revealed an inverted U-shaped trajectory of cognitive control in both behavioral and anatomical domains, the age-related changes in functional brain activities remain poorly understood. To bridge this gap, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of 139 neuroimaging studies using conflict tasks, encompassing 3765 participants aged 5 to 85 years. We adopted the seed-based d mapping (SDM), generalized additive model (GAM), and model comparison approaches to investigate age-related changes in brain activities to characterize the lifespan trajectories of cognitive control. Our analyses revealed two key findings: (1) The predominant lifespan trajectory is inverted U-shaped, rising from childhood to peak in young adulthood (between 27 and 36 years) before declining in later adulthood; (2) Both the youth and the elderly show weaker brain activities and greater left laterality than young adults. These results collectively reveal the lifespan trajectories of cognitive control, highlighting systematic fluctuations in brain activities with age.