Scientists have found that some people have the brain to age is still “young”
Some elderly people on tests of attention and memory can surpass the young people of retirement age their brain works as well as 20-year-old, and sometimes better. As scientists have found, he looks no different from young. The exact cause of such preservation of the brain yet they can not name.
“Superstrike” (superagers) is a term coined by the neurologist from Chicago Marcel Mesulam. So he called the elderly people, whose memory and attention, not just better than they should be at their age, and not inferior to the memory and care of young people 20-30 years.
Aging, we begin to think slower, it is difficult to multitask and something to remember. This is due to the thinning of the cerebral cortex is very common, related to aging.
News
Women’s memory was better
In tests of memory for people of different ages there are different standards — so, if the average 25-year-old patient of the neurologist is able to memorize about 14 words, for the 75-year-old nine words will already be a good result.
However, common does not mean inevitable. The study showed scientists from Harvard medical school published in the journal of Neuroscience, to retain a thick bark and a good memory perhaps.
Researchers believe that the study of the brain “superstrike” will reveal the secrets of healthy aging brain and to understand what happens when this process goes wrong.
“Understanding what is a healthy aging brain, we can identify biomarkers to predict problems in people with age-related diseases such as dementia,” says Alexander Tortuga, one of the study’s authors.
The work done is a step towards understanding how some older people maintain the ability and youth of thinking and the contours of the brain that support these abilities. “In previous studies compared to elderly aged 85 years and older and middle-aged people, says Turuturu. — We focus on people of retirement age, 60-70 years, and explored those whose brain worked like a 20-year-old”.
News
What will life among the Immortals
Turuturu and her team tested a group of 40 participants 60-80 years of age and a group of 41 participants 18-35 years of age, without neurological and psychiatric diseases. The volunteers had to perform standard tests on memorizing words. Among the older participants 17 performed as well as young, or even better.
After reviewing the results of their MRI, the researchers found that the brain of these elderly people not only functions as a young, but visually looks the same. Neither age nor education “superstrike” did not differ fundamentally from other older members.
Among the “superstrike” of women was greater than among other elderly people.
Two areas of the brain they were in the same condition as that of young participants: the one that stores and retrieves the information, and the one that is responsible for directing attention and revealing important details. The thicker these were the regions, the better was the memory of the elderly. The results of the study also showed that the size of these regions correlated with the ability to memorize. The strongest correlation was identified in the area of the intersection of these areas. “We believe that effective communication between these areas is very important for a healthy aging brain,” reports Turuturu.
Also they have almost decreased volume of the hippocampus, a region responsible for the transition of short-term memory to long-term.
News
to Remember everything
While researchers find it difficult to give an unambiguous explanation of this phenomenon, suggesting that it plays the role of genetic factors and a healthy lifestyle. If this is confirmed, then the study is resistant to reduction of the areas of the brain in older people may be the target of many new studies. Future research should focus on factors that affect the preservation of brain areas, scientists say.
Emily Rogalski, a neuroscientist who also studies the “superstrike”, notes that “we can better explore the cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms that maintain the thickness of the cortex of the elderly and keep their minds right.”
She echoed Professor of neurology Bradford Dickenson, one of the participants of the study. “We are desperately in need of understanding how some of the elderly brain works fine, and 60 and 70 years. It can allow us to find a way to prevent the deterioration of memory and thinking, which accompanies the aging of most of us,” he says.