Lmao He Looks So Smug About This

The whole "the brain isn't fully mature until age 25" bit is actually a fairly impressive bit of psuedoscience for how incredibly stupid the way it misinterprets the data it's based on is.

Okay, so: there's a part of the human brain called the "prefrontal cortex" which is, among other things, responsible for executive function and impulse control. Like most parts of the brain, it undergoes active "rewiring" over time (i.e., pruning unused neural connections and establishing new ones), and in the case of the prefrontal cortex in particular, this rewiring sharply accelerates during puberty.

Because the pace of rewiring in the prefrontal cortex is linked to specific developmental milestones, it was hypothesised that it would slow down and eventually stop in adulthood. However, the process can't directly be observed; the only way to tell how much neural rewiring is taking place in a particular part of the brain is to compare multiple brain scans of the same individual performed over a period of time.

Thus, something called a "longitudinal study" was commissioned: the same individuals would undergo regular brain scans over a period of mayn years, beginning in early childhood, so that their prefrontal development could accurately be tracked.

The longitudinal study was originally planned to follow its subjects up to age 21. However, when the predicted cessation of prefrontal rewiring was not observed by age 21, additional funding was obtained, and the study period was extended to age 25. The predicted cessation of prefrontal development wasn't observed by age 25, either, at which point the study was terminated.

When the mainstream press got hold of these results, the conclusion that prefrontal rewiring continues at least until age 25 was reported as prefrontal development finishing at age 25. Critically, this is the exact opposite of what the study actually concluded. The study was unable to identify a stopping point for prefrontal development because no such stopping point was observed for any subject during the study period. The only significance of the age 25 is that no subjects were tracked beyond this age because the study ran out of funding!

It gets me when people try to argue against the neuroscience-proves-everybody-under-25-is-a-child talking point by claiming that it's merely an average, or that prefrontal development doesn't tell the whole story. Like, no, it's not an average – it's just bullshit. There's no evidence that the cited phenomenon exists at all. If there is an age where prefrontal rewiring levels off and stops (and it's not clear that there is), we don't know what age that is; we merely know that it must be older than 25.

As a Konoha employee I can say it’s more than just a job, it’s a lifestyle. One we were born into and groomed from childhood to respect the state and the state only. The culture of Konoha is comfortable, fun, and all I know. I am paid two dollars above minimum wage. I’m proud to say that Konoha is my ninja way!! 

rotating them in my brain

I really don't fuck with the idea of "cishet men being there is a sign of a healthy queer community" and the way it gets touted as a litmus test like "oh but cishet men being there is a good sign for all the closeted trans women." Like okay if you're trying to convince a bunch of trans women that your queer community is safe for them I really don't think you should, even implicitly, be saying "oh don't worry, our queer community is totally inclusive of trans women! That's why we've got cishet men here! Y'all are pretty much the same, right?"

Like, a closeted trans woman is probably going to feel more comfortable in a queer community if she sees a bunch of other trans women who are safe and comfortable, innit?

20-something gugu living with iris and helping her raise little peng in the 80s while also being involved with weird supernatural shit. you agree

unfortunately for shuro the simple fact is that he’s just way too normal for falin….. marcille on the other hand as much as she might deny it is a fellow fucked up freak and thus was always destined to pull the resident Weird Girl™

"what if chilchuck was a butch?" we thought

and Ryoko said - "say no more!" - and made Meijack, can you believe it???

anyway I'm surprised nobody's done it before, you can have it!

original panels under read more

p.s. - she just doodled chilchuck genderbend once and couldnt let go of the design and BAM Meijack was born lol its so funnt tbh. but fucking valid

something something i was never who you wanted me to be

Just some normal healing magic