After the age of 40, our brains begin to undergo a radical “rewiring” that leads to the integration and interconnection of different networks in the following decades, with consequent effects on cognition, Big Think cites a systematic scientific review, the results of which are recently published in Psychophysiology. .
In this regard, a team of researchers from Monash University in Australia worked to find out how the communication of the human brain changes over the course of a person’s life.
From adolescence to adulthood
The researchers were able to draw a big picture of how the retinal brain changes over the course of our lives. Early in adolescence and youth, the brain appears to have many segmented networks with high levels of internal connectivity, reflecting the ability for specialized processing to occur. This conception makes sense, because that age includes the time people learn to exercise, speak languages, and develop talent.
However, a change begins around age 40, when the brain begins to be less connected within these separate networks and more globally connected across the networks.
In the person’s 1980s, the brain tends to be less regionally specialized rather than broadly connected and integrated, in what is described as “rewiring” that has significant effects on cognition.
The human brain – iStock
The thinking of adults is less flexible
The researchers noted that “older adults tend to exhibit less flexible thinking, such as new concept formation and abstract thinking, and less response inhibition, as well as lower levels of numerical and verbal reasoning.”
They also added that “these changes in executive function may first be seen in adults in their fifth decade of life.”
But the news isn’t all bad for the aging brain, with researchers writing that “activities that rely primarily on automated processes or are well practiced are less affected by age or may increase slightly with age, such as vocabulary and general knowledge “.
Expression of aging – iStock
The researchers also suggested that the changes occur in the brain because it is a resource-hungry organ that absorbs large amounts of simple sugar glucose, noting that “the adult brain accounts for about 2% of total body weight but requires about 20% of total body weight. the total glucose intake “.
But with age, the human body tends to slow down and the brain becomes less efficient. So not only does the brain get less glucose, it doesn’t use fuel well. Therefore, it is possible that the retinal changes stem from the brain reorganizing itself to function as it can as resources dwindle and “organs” age.
a healthy lifestyle
Proper diet, regular exercise, and a healthy lifestyle can keep the mind in good condition and sometimes stop network changes in old age.
“During the first few years of life, there is a rapid upregulation of functional brain networks. Functional networks are then improved until about the third and fourth decades of life,” say the researchers.
