Can the peak of the brain be maintained until the age of 60?
2023-10-24
When people get old, they become stupid and forgetful... Old age is always associated with negative evaluations such as "slow response" and "memory loss". It is widely believed that the speed of human thinking begins to decline in their 20s. A recent scientific study has challenged the conventional wisdom that humans' ability to process information in decision-making doesn't decline until age 60. Scientists explain that the human brain's thinking remains high at age 60, but as people age, people make decisions more carefully, and it takes longer to respond.
Does brain function decline with age? Are older people significantly less capable of thinking than younger people? Psychologists and brain scientists use experiments to find answers.
There are also different types of intelligence, and the elderly also have intelligence that they are good at
Psychological research has found that although the total score of older people in IQ tests is slightly lower than that of young people, they have advantages over young people in some aspects, including expression ability, breadth of knowledge, analysis and comparison, judgment and reasoning. These intelligences require long-term experience accumulation and maturity in practice, just like crystals, they need to accumulate over time, so they are called "crystalline intelligence".
What the elderly lack relatively lacking is memory and the ability to accept new ideas, which are often used to adapt to new environments and change and migrate like flowing water, so they are called "liquid intelligence". Crystalline intelligence will gradually increase with age, and stabilize at a higher level by the age of 60, and even some people still improve at an advanced age. Fluid intelligence slowly declines in adulthood and decreases significantly by age 60 compared to age 20.
The number of neurons in older people will be slightly reduced, but the neural structure is no worse than that of middle-aged people.
The function of the brain is based on the structure and function of neurons. Neurons are the longest-lived cells in the human body, and the life cycle lasts almost throughout a person's life. The number of neurons in people no longer increases after birth and dies at a rate of 0.1% per year. A 60-year-old had a 4 percent reduction in the number of neurons compared to a 20-year-old, and the difference was not significant. Moreover, neurons can constantly form new synaptic connections, which is a manifestation of learning and memory at the cellular level. Older people have more learning experience and experience, preserve more effective synaptic connections, and tend to have an advantage over young people in judgment, decision-making and other thinking.
Scientists have conducted brain scans of people of different ages to determine the metabolic activity of various parts of the human brain, and found that the brains of healthy elderly people are as active as the brains of healthy young people. In another study, scientists anatomy the brains of 5 healthy middle-aged people who died unexpectedly, 5 healthy elderly people who died unexpectedly, and 5 elderly people who died due to disease, and the results showed that the number of dendrites, length, and branches of neurons in healthy elderly people (these indicators are closely related to thinking ability) significantly exceeded those of middle-aged people. The lowest number of dendrites is found in older people who die from disease. This suggests that the function of the human brain does not necessarily decline with age, and that some neural structures in the brains of healthy older people are better than those of middle-aged people.
"body" and "heart" at the same time, the brain can also be a "late bloomer".
For the elderly, physical health is the foundation of intellectual soundness. Various diseases will affect the blood circulation and metabolism of the brain, resulting in mental decline, and factors such as dazzling and deafness, physical weakness and other factors will also affect the intelligence of the elderly. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are typical pathological aging of the brain, and the damage to intelligence is more obvious. Therefore, the elderly should exercise regularly, maintain a reasonable diet and sleep, prevent chronic diseases, and comprehensively improve physical fitness.
Strong muscles need to be exercised, and brain potential needs to be developed. How to stimulate neurons to exert their plasticity and form more effective synaptic connections and neural circuits? The answer is to use the brain wisely, solve problems, summarize lessons learned, and constantly gain cognitive upgrades.
Mental health cannot be ignored either. The memory performance of those elderly people with high self-identification, optimism and cheerfulness, and often receiving positive feedback from others is generally better than that of elderly people with low self-identification, depression and anxiety, and lack of positive feedback. Elderly people may wish to often reminisce about happy pasts, chat with relatives and friends, and cultivate more hobbies to improve their mentality. Learning simple memorization methods and using tools such as notepads to remind yourself can increase your inner sense of control.
Among modern entrepreneurs, scientists, artists and talents from all walks of life, there are many old and strong people. As Samuel Ullman said: years will only wrinkle the skin, and once you lose enthusiasm, the heart will be covered with frost and snow, and the pursuit of ideals is the secret of eternal youth.
