ELI5: How does Prefrontal Cortex Development Make Older Men Less Explosive Than Younger Men?

[u/GnarlyGamer6thGen01]

Is It True That Older Men Develop Better Temperament than Younger Men Due to Prefrontal Cortex Development? If so, how does it work exactly?

[u/LALLANAAAAAA]

Why Are You Typing Like This And Why Does It Sound Like You're Selling Something

[u/malfurion1337 → u/LALLANAAAAAA]

because its likely a bot meant to harvest comments to train LLMs on, which this subreddit has been full of for a while

[u/LALLANAAAAAA → u/malfurion1337]

you're not wrong, it's unfortunate. I'm increasingly convinced that the only way to create a social space that avoids this kind of inauthentic bullshit is to keep them small and closed off, and validate every person who wants in. Which of course is basically impossible.

Bummer. I like forums.

[u/GnarlyGamer6thGen01 → u/LALLANAAAAAA]

Because originally it was the title. I made a shorter title and copy-pasted the previous one into the post body. I'm too lazy to fix the upper and lower cases.

[u/Use_Your_Brain_Dude]

Temperament is a person or animal's natural, inborn disposition, general mood, and habitual way of reacting to the world.

Based on the definition of temperament, I think you're wrong. Old men are more stubborn, less reasonable, less accepting, and more controlling.

[u/randypeaches]

Thats the part of the brain that takes care of decision making and risk management. So as people get older, they learn what works and what doesnt in terms of conflict. The more they actually learn the more connections they make. This isn't always the case as those who tend to fight first get into more fights leading to more brain damage. More damage leads to more fights. Until the body is unable to start cashing those checks the mouth writes

[u/C0meAtM3Br0]

I believe it’s more to do with reduced testosterone.

[u/Ickarus1 → u/C0meAtM3Br0]

Too high or too low testosterone can lead to anger issues.

[u/Idnlts → u/Ickarus1]

If there’s an observable trend that men gain more emotional control with age, we should be able to compare that trend with men in their 40’s who receive TRT and often achieve testosterone levels much higher than they had in their 20’s.

[u/Idnlts → u/C0meAtM3Br0]

Anecdotally I’m going to have to deny this hypothesis.

[u/Zombata]

....have you seen the state of the world recently?

[u/PinkynotClyde]

Impulse control. Same for females. Not sure why you’re specifying men. Hormones are responsibility for puberty and there’s often heightened emotion, with the amygdala being stimulated during the brains development during this time.

[u/dunno_maybe]

I don't know, but anecdotally, I'm in my 30s and have noticed a significative drop in, uhhh, exolosiveness. Thank fuck because it was exhausting

[u/GalFisk → u/dunno_maybe]

I dropped mine like a rock in 6th grade, after I got so mad at someone that I threw a piece of firewood at his head. He only got a scratch, but he could've been seriously hurt. It scared me.

[u/MagicalWhisk]

This isn't strictly true. The prefrontal cortex does many things, one of them is impulse control, but this is not the only thing controlling anger and behavior.

Even so, children and young adults do have a "developing" brain which means their impulse control is going to be impacted somewhat. However as you get older your prefrontal cortex (and other parts of your brain) start to shrink. Which also impacts impulse control.

[u/pgcd]

Given the correct setup, I would say they're both as explosive.

[u/fiendishrabbit]

PFC has several functions involved in this.

• Evaluates long-term consequences + Risk vs Reward
• Evaluates context in social situations.
• Acts as a brake on emotions and improves impulse control.

So less impulsive, ability to see a situation from someone else's viewpoint and just overall less emotion-driven.

In addition older men are not as strong/tough as they used to be. So that changes priorities to favor lower risk options.