Once we hit age 40, our bodies inevitably start to slow down. We lose flexibility and efficiency. Our minds slow down too. We don’t process new information as quickly and our thinking becomes less productive.
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Scientists researching this type of body and mind aging found that the difference between younger and older people’s brains is that older people require more brainpower to complete the same tasks that young people do with less cognitive effort.
From The New York Times:
In young people, activation in the cortex during these cognitive tasks tends to be highly localized. Depending on the type of thinking, young people’s brains light up almost exclusively in either the right or left portion of the prefrontal cortex.
But in older people, studies show, brain activity during the same mental tasks requires far more brainpower. They typically display activity in both hemispheres of their prefrontal cortex.
So researchers set out to know whether this was inevitable with aging or if it could be slowed or even prevented with lifestyle changes.
In this new study, which will appear next month in NeuroImage, Hideaki Soya, a professor at the University of Tsukuba in Japan tested the aerobic fitness of 60 Japanese men between the ages of 64 and 75, who showed no signs of dementia or other serious cognitive decline. The next day, he fitted each volunteer with a series of tiny probes across their foreheads and scalps. The probes used infrared light to highlight blood flow and oxygen uptake in various parts of the brain.
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With the probes in place, the volunteers completed complex, computerized tests. When the scientists examined the brain activity of the men, they found that most needed to use more of their brains in order to complete the task. However, the brains of the most aerobically fit of the volunteers worked like those of much younger people. They also were quicker and more accurate in their keystrokes, indicating that they attended and responded better than the less-fit volunteers.
Dr. Soya concluded that older people’s brains require fewer resources to complete tasks than do the brains of older people who are out of shape. And that daily exercise such as walking and mild jogging may affect the way the brain works, so that an older person’s brain “acts like a younger brain.”
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It’s important to note, however, that the study did not look at exercise habits, only aerobic fitness. Dr. Soya did not directly examine whether exercise affects brain activation.
Curated article from:
NY Times
