
No one’s brain is as sharp at 60 as it was at 20. However, new research supports the notion that folk’s brains can make subtle adjustments with age to compensate for that decline. A team of British researchers has found more evidence that as the mind ages, it sometimes recruits help from certain brain regions to make up for deficits elsewhere. This does not happen for everyone equally, stressed study lead author Dr. Ethan Knights. Still, “now that we’ve seen this compensation happening, we can start to ask questions about why it happens for some older people, but not others, and in some tasks, but not others,” said Knights, who works in the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University. “Is there something special about these people — their education or lifestyle, for example — and if so, is there a way we can intervene to help others see similar benefits?,” Knights said in a university news release. His team published its findings Feb. 6 in the journal eLife. Working with researchers at the University of Sussex, Knights’ group sought to elucidate the brain’s means of coping with age. “Our ability to solve abstract problems is a sign of so-called ‘fluid intelligence,’ but as we get older, this ability begins to show significant decline,” noted senior study author Dr. Kamen Tsvetanov.… read on > read on >