In the last decade, a growing body of longitudinal neuroimaging research has demonstrated that adolescence is a period of continued brain growth and change, challenging longstanding assumptions that the brain was largely finished maturing by puberty [ 1 – 3 ]. The frontal lobes, home to key components of the neural circuitry underlying "executive functions" such as planning, working memory, and impulse control, are among the last areas of the brain to mature; they may not be fully developed until halfway through the third decade of life [ 2 ].

Well, that discovery certainly partially explains the results of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation poll that discovered, on the 100th anniversary of the communist takeover of Russia, that more of those 35 years old and under – the so called Millennials – prefer to live in a socialist country, or even a communist one, over a free-market (capitalist) country.

When the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation published our inaugural study on American attitudes toward socialism and communism last year, the results revealed some disturbing trends in American society. We just completed our second annual study, tracking how opinions about communism among Americans have changed since 2016. The results aren't very encouraging. For starters, as of this year, more Millennials would prefer to live in a socialist country (44%) than in a capitalist one (42%). Some even said they would prefer to live in a communist country (7%). The percentage of Millennials who would prefer socialism to capitalism is a full ten points higher than that of the general population. It seems that the majority of America's largest generation would prefer to live in a socialist or communism society than in a free enterprise system that respects the rule of law, private property, and limited government. This is even more disconcerting when coupled with the fact that, despite Millennials' enthusiasm for socialism and communism, they do not, in fact, know what those terms mean [emphasis added].

Most of the Millennials were, at most, infants when the Berlin Wall fell and when Communist Russia collapsed and desperate Cubans fled their non-paradise to America, so they know little of the evils of communism and its many perversions, such as the untold millions slaughtered in its name and the ensuing poverty and fear. It certainly wasn't taught in their schools. Cheering the avowed – but wealthy – socialist Bernie Sanders as he proposes "free" health care and "free" college while railing at "the rich," they are blissfully unaware of the horrors of socialism presently ruining once prosperous Venezuela, or of the more horrors in communist China or North Korea.

Perhaps these deluded youngsters – and others who believe in government control – should speak to the many thousands of immigrants in America from Russia and Cuba who fled their communist non-paradises with literally nothing but the clothing on their backs for the safety of the capitalist USA. It would certainly spur their brain development.

As would this. On this centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution, which brought communism to Russia, now designated as a National Day for the Victims of Communism, yesterday the White House remembered the victims.