Conventional medical wisdom says that as a person gets older, their mature brain shrinks – but some new research might just change the way we think about the aging brain.
The idea that healthy older brains are so much smaller than young brains comes from earlier studies that unknowingly used people who had undetected, slowly developing brain disease that would have been killing off cells – accounting for the smaller size.
Expecting that it’s normal for the brain to shrink with the years has given rise to the myth that mental decline must also be a natural, inevitable part of aging.
This latest study, appearing in the September 2009 issue of the American Psychology Association’s Neuropsychology changes all that.
Participants for this work came from Holland’s longstanding Maastricht Aging Study. Using behavioral data collected from 1994 to 2005, with MRI scans taken between 1997 and 1999, the researchers divided participants into two groups – 35 people who were in good cognitive health (free of dementia, Parkinson’s disease or stroke), and 30 others who didn’t have dementia but were dealing with substantial cognitive decline, though still free of dementia.
The average age of the subjects was 69 years.
Both groups took neuropsychological tests (including a screening for dementia) at the start of the study, and every three years afterward for a total of nine years.
An MRI scan of seven different parts of the brain, the hippocampus (important in forming and retaining memories) and the frontal and cingulated areas of the critical cortex, vital to thinking skills and documented the actual size of these areas in each subject.
What the team saw was that those who were dealing with declining cognitive skills also had shrinkage in the brain. Among those who struggled with thinking, older participants had smaller brain areas than the younger participants in this group.
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Older Brains Aren’t Necessarily Smaller Brains Continued…
This suggests that among healthy older people without cognitive decline the brain may not change size much at all. So getting on in years isn’t a guarantee of a smaller, more shrunken brain.
In fact, brain atrophy (shrinkage) may have been overestimated, and normal brain size for older people very much underestimated based on the results of this study.
“If future longitudinal studies find similar results, our conception of ‘normal’ brain aging may become more optimistic,” explains the study’s lead author, Saartje Burgmans, a graduate student at Maastricht University in Holland who is due to receive her Ph.D. later in 2009.
The team feels strongly that if you keep your brain healthy as you get older, the key parts of your grey matter could shrink very little, if at all.
Though a cure for the most destructive, debilitating brain diseases continues to elude medicine, there are some completely natural things you can do to help lower your risk of losing cognitive function in your later years.
Eating a nutritious diet, exercising regularly, being a part of regular social activity and enjoying mentally stimulating hobbies are all simple ways to help you keep a mature brain and mind mind sharp as you continue to age.
Daily Health Bulletin
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