A study led by Cambridge’s MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit compared the brains of 3,802 people between 0 and 90 years old using datasets of MRI diffusion scans, which map neural connections by tracking how water molecules move through brain tissue.

In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists say they detected five broad phases of brain structure in the average human life, split up by four pivotal “turning points” between birth and death when our brains reconfigure.

Childhood brain “topology” runs from birth until a turning point at the age of nine, when it transitions to the adolescent phase—an era that lasts right up to the age of 32, on average.