The brain never stops absorbing information. It is constantly processing thought and controlling our bodies, right through to our old age.

At birth, we already have all the brain cells we need along with billions of interconnected neurons. By age three, our brains have made almost 1000 trillion connections. 

Many of these neuronal connections have to be cut back, and this process is called pruning. The rate of this, and what is cut back, depends on your environment and what you are interested in.

Our brains “plasticity”, is its ability to continually change and adapt to and from different circumstances. This sets up our brains for lifelong learning.

However, in terms of learning our brains are most receptive in our early years. It is like a muscle, and it will degrades as and when it is not used. Therefore we are in prime shape to learn and absorb lots of information when we are younger. So, we do not stop learning, we simply begin to take longer to learn. This in turn can be frustrating and cause a lot of people to give up learning, but it certainly does not mean we are incapable.