Research on Brain Decline Gives New Meaning to Turning 30
In recent years, a new industry has emerged around the issue of brain fitness. The fundamental premise of this growing industry is based upon the notion that brain exercise is as important to maintaining mental acuity as we get older as physical exercise is to preserving muscle strength.
However, two new studies indicate that we have a great deal to learn when it comes to maintaining brain power as we age.
Brain Decline Study
According to the research of Professor Timothy Salthouse of Virginia University, the slide towards old age intellectually begins as we reach our late 20s. Salthouse found that our mental powers actually peaked at age 22 and that both speed of thought and spatial visualization skills begin declining at age 27.
Salthouse’s seven-year study involved 2,000 healthy people, ages 18-60. Published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, the research involved tests of mental agility.
In the study, participants were asked to perform a number of mental tasks including solving puzzles, recalling words as well as story details and spotting potential patterns in letters and symbols. The tasks presented to study participants matched several currently used by doctors to spot signs of dementia.
As for the age findings, the researcher determined that in nine of the 12 tests given, the average age of those participants reaching the highest performance level was 22. As for the point of slippage, the study found that the first age for which there was any significant decline was 27 with the decline occurring in tests of brain speed, reasoning and visual puzzle-solving ability.
Enormous Implications for Brain Fitness
While the decline in mental capacity (according to Salthouse) begins well before we obtain senior citizen status, some aspects of brain function actually fared much better. First, Salthouse found that our memory skills remained intact, on average, until the age of 37.
Second, there is definitely this attribute we often call wisdom and it appears to increase until we do reach our senior years. Salthouse found that abilities based on accumulated knowledge, (think of tests of vocabulary or general information) increased until the age of 60.
The potential to address issues such as dementia and Alzheimer’s is significant. Examining how healthy brains decline could well be the first step towards solving these debilitating physical diseases.
Current Brain Fitness Receives Low Marks
While therapies designed to maintain mental acuity may need to start much earlier than previously thought, it appears that the current brain fitness market requires further scrutiny as well. The BBC recently reported the assertions of a consumer group called Which?
The group asked three experts to research some of the brain fitness sites and games sold on the premise that they not only help retain memory skills but may help prevent the onset of dementia. Those experts concluded that hard evidence (peer-reviewed research in a recognized scientific journal) to back those claims was sorely lacking.
According to the experts, brain fitness exercises do increase blood flow to the frontal cortex region of the brain. But those same experts noted that the same blood flow effects occur when we are surfing the internet or chatting with friends.
Those experts concluded that the money spent on brain trainers could be put to better use. While these sites and their respective activities may indeed help, the experts offered that the same benefits might be available from simply doing a traditional crossword puzzle.
What Are We to Do
While taken as a pair the two reports might be cause for despair, there are some clear aspects emerging. There is clear evidence that physical exercise has a positive impact on intellectual staying power.
In addition, a healthy and nutritious diet is also critical to maintaining mental acuity. Lastly, according to the experts reporting to Which?, an active social life is also key to keeping an agile mind.
When it comes to the use it or lose it adage, that too appears to have merit. But the effects of the current brain fitness products may ultimately be no better than standard computer games such as Tetris.
Taken in sum, the two offer some interesting insights as well as additional food for thought when it comes to maintaining the gray matter inside our head. Not all of it will set well with the pessimistic among us.
And now we know for sure why we baby-boomers felt a certain level of chagrin when we turned 30.
Flickr photos courtesy of Peta-de-Aztlan, Snowblink and Bob.Fornal.
5 comments
I’ m 23 years old and I think this research is nothing but complete lies and misinformation. The simple reason why I do not take this research seriously is because instead of actually studying the physical human brain, all it does is study the results of arbitrary tests! An older study from last year actually examined the myelin in the brain and found out that only stopped around age 39 and started declining at age 40. Plus, the human brain isn’t fully developed until age 25, so why would it reach a peak at age 22? I call bullshit.
It seems as if you can produce a study to give almost any result you want depending on how you define terms and set limits.
Researchers always trying to find ways to limit people. Always trying to find ways to inhibit people from trying.
I believe researchers publish such information so that they can reduce competition. See many researchers must compete for grants to do research, so if they have more people competing in their field, the more difficult it is to get research money. The more people in their field the more difficult it is to get into a Post-doc. The more people in their field the more difficult it will be for their children to attend prestigious universities and if need be obtain scholarships.
Not to mention that by emphasizing that the average person is limited in what they can achieve, it increases their own standing. If the average person is inherently incapable of achieving to the researchers level of accomplishment then that researcher must be a “genius” compared to the average schmuck!
It is easy to see that nearly all the incentives for these researchers rest in emphasizing the limits of people’s mental faculties.
Who knows, but it makes sense if 22 year olds do score higher than average. They are working their brains in heavy textbooks all day to finish that college degree! That’s not to say their brain is smarter – just more fit.
What does studying the physical human brain have to do with measuring the effects of something like intelligence that cannot be physically located in the cerebellum? I guess it’s a testament that more agile brain fuction is truly wasted on the 20-somethings…I hope the current contributors aren’t in their 20s – I mean, that would be a total bummer in light of the article, no?
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