“Reboot your prefrontal cortex,” “train your prefrontal cortex,” and even, “why you should make prefrontal cortex development a dating criterion.”

These are among the ideas circulating on Chinese social media, where the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for planning, impulse control, and emotional regulation, has become a buzzword. Many young people self-diagnose “prefrontal cortex damage” to explain their emotional and cognitive struggles, with at least 10 related topics appearing on trending lists on microblogging platform Weibo.

The trend dates back to last October, when influencer Yang Yukun, a Chinese neuroscience Ph.D. student at the Graz University of Technology, in Austria, posted a video about the prefrontal cortex to Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, and lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, drawing a total of over 500,000 likes.

“The prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully mature until around age 25, so biologically speaking, people under 25 are ‘brain-disabled,’” Yang said in the video.

Drawing on his experience raising his 4-year-old daughter, Yang explained in the viral post that as brains mature, people become less emotionally volatile and better at planning.

In the comments, many users began “self-diagnosing” signs of underdeveloped prefrontal cortices. “No wonder I was so love-obsessed before, and then suddenly lost interest in dating after 25,” one wrote.

Over the following months, Yang published more than 30 posts on the topic, with discussions expanding to parenting and romantic relationships, as other neuroscience-focused creators also joined in.

Yang’s most popular posts, drawing hundreds of thousands of likes, offered advice on “protecting” the prefrontal cortex, such as reducing multitasking and maintaining good sleep to let it “rest.”

After Yang posted that “how well one’s prefrontal cortex developed” should be used as a dating criterion, the term “prefrontal cortex-friendly partner” — meaning someone who is emotionally stable, reliable, responsible, and kind — began trending.

Yang has also suggested that to support the development of decision-making — a skill managed by the prefrontal cortex — in children, parents should let them make their own choices. Many users have since reflected on how their upbringing may have hindered their own development — for instance, losing the urge to start homework the moment their parents told them to.

He has also tried to dispel misconceptions that have circulated online, such as that forehead size is related to the size of one’s prefrontal cortex.

The “prefrontal cortex” trend has been linked to the nation’s recent ADHD craze, when many internet users felt they met diagnostic criteria, shared struggles with procrastination and distraction, and sought community online. Research has also linked ADHD to the underdevelopment of the prefrontal cortex.

Some see rising interest in ADHD and the prefrontal cortex as a sign of growing public awareness of mental health. Others question whether the trend may trivialize conditions that require medical intervention.

Hu Jun, deputy director of the neurology department at Southwest Hospital, Army Medical University in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, told domestic media that genuine prefrontal cortex damage typically refers to organic conditions such as traumatic brain injury. Young people using the term to describe themselves, he said, are more often doing so as a way to ease anxiety.

However, he warned that the overuse of such “medical memes” could lead to “those who truly need help being overlooked, and the conditions themselves being misunderstood.”

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.

(Header image: Visuals from VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)