Meanwhile, legislatures and courts are hearing a very different argument from a group of people that haven't traditionally testified before them:
neuroscientists.
Using advanced brain-scanning technology, scientists are getting a better view of how the human brain develops than ever before. And what
they've found is that in most people, the prefrontal cortex and its links to other regions of the brain are not fully formed until age 25-much later
than anyone had realized. These areas are the seat of "executive decision making the parts of the brain that allow people to think through the
likely consequences of an action, weigh the risks and benefits and stop themselves from acting on impulse. In other words, the stuff that makes
you a mature person.
7To state and local lawmakers and judges, the brain research can come as a revelation: May be the car-rental companies were right all along.
What to do about this is another matter. In America, "adulthood" already has its familiar compass points, 18 and 21. But what is the age of
responsibility? And what if that age-the point when citizens are responsible enough to earn all of the rights a democracy confers upon its
people-bears no resemblance to the ages already enshrined in law? Finding the answers to those questions is a more complicated task than
simply choosing a milestone birthday. "There's been a growing recognition that most of our earlier law in how we treat adolescents and young
adults was chaotic and not tied to any empirical rationale," says Brian Wilcox, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska. "When many of
these laws were established, there really wasn't research on which they could be based."
What does it say? |

Why did they say it?