Eat more berries!

The latest directive from the scientists as to what to eat orders us all to eat more berries to keep our brains young.

Strawberries, blackberries and blueberries contain high levels of compounds called polyphenolics, which help the brain to carry out essential 'housekeeping' functions.

Eating fruits with deep orange, red or blue pigments can even reverse the loss of brain power, according to a two month study of laboratory rats fed a berry-rich diet.

 

Shibu Poulose, who presented his research at the American Chemical Society on Monday, said: "The good news is that natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits, vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may protect against age-associated decline."

Polyphenolics in berries help certain cells called microglia, which clean up toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss and other symptoms of mental decline. 

So now we have to consume chocolate, milk, red wine and lots of berries. Gets better all the time doesn't it!

Carry on surfing

We have posted on this topic before but there is now additional evidence that clearly shows that web surfing materially impacts our brain in a positive way.

The researchers worked with 24 men and women aged between 55 and 78. Half of them had used the internet a lot; the others had little experience.

At the start of the research, they were asked to conduct a series of internet searches while their brains were scanned using a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures changes in blood flow around the brain to work out which parts are the most and least active.

After the initial scan, participants went home and used the internet to carry out specified tasks for an hour a day at least seven times over the following fortnight. Then they had a second brain scan, again while searching the internet.

The impact began immediately, with the first scan demonstrating brain activity in regions controlling language, reading, memory and vision.

By the time of the second scan, however, the activated areas had spread to include the frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, areas known to be important in working memory and decision-making. The researchers suggest internet searching stimulates brain cells and pathways, making them more active.

“Searching online may be a simple form of brain exercise that might be employed to enhance cognition in older adults,” said Teena Moody, one of the researchers who will be presenting this work at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago tomorrow.

It has long been known that as people age, their brain functions and abilities also change. In many respects these changes are beneficial — verbal and social skills tend to improve until at least late middle age, for example. In other areas there can be declines. One of the best known is mathematics, as shown by the number of mathematicians and physicists who do their best work early and then struggle to match their youthful performances.

In Britain around 700,000 people suffer from dementia, a condition in which so much of the brain has died that function is severely impaired.

The researchers argue that brains are similar to muscles, in that the more they are exercised, the healthier they become. So, activities such as internet use, reading and socialising can slow or reverse normal age-related declines.

Interestingly they reckon that internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading. So now you know! Carry on surfing!

Older brains can be more effective

An emerging body of research shows that a surprising array of mental functions hold up well into old age, while others get better. Vocabulary improves, as do other verbal abilities such as skill with synonyms and antonyms. Older brains are packed with more so-called expert knowledge -- information relevant to your occupation or hobby. (Older bridge enthusiasts have at their mental beck-and-call many more bids and responses.) They also store more "cognitive templates," or mental outlines of generic problems and solutions that can be tapped when confronting new problems.

Eric Kandel, 77, who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in medicine, maintains an active lab at Columbia University and mentors younger scientists. "I think I do science better than I did when I was younger," he says. "In science, judgment is so important, and I now have a better understanding of which problems are important and which aren't."

Discoveries of brain functions that hold up, or even improve, through the decades could affect corporate and public policy. As baby boomers age, many are resisting mandatory retirement. Air-traffic controllers in the US are asking federal agencies to reconsider the requirement that they retire at age 55, and the Federal Aviation Administration in January proposed pushing back the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots, currently at 60.

The emerging neuroscience is on their side. One of the most robust cognitive abilities is semantic memory, which is recollection of facts and figures. "Semantic memory is relatively resistant to the effects of aging," says psychology professor Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Semantic memory includes vocabulary, which increases with age so reliably (at least in people who continue reading) that a younger person should never challenge a sharp 75-year-old to a crossword puzzle.

Expert knowledge -- information about an occupational or even hobbyist specialty -- resists the effects of aging, too, which is why mumbling "accrued post-retirement liabilities" to an 80-year-old actuary makes his relevant synapses fire as robustly as they did at age 40. Synapses that encode expert knowledge "are written in stone," says neuroscientist John Morrison of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

The longevity of expert knowledge and cognitive templates lies behind the finding that air-traffic controllers in their 60s are at least as skilled as those in their 30s. When Kramer and a colleague at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave older controllers standard lab tests for reaction speed, memory, attention and the like, they found the usual: Performance declined compared with that of 30-somethings.

But on more fast-paced, complex -- and hence realistic -- tests in which they juggled multiple airliners and handled emergencies, the senior controllers did as well as or better than the young ones. They kept simulated planes safely away from each other, and when they ordered planes to change their altitude, heading or speed to avoid a collision, they used fewer commands than younger ones. It was as if their experience had equipped them with the most efficient algorithm for keeping the planes safely spaced.

That 60-somethings can mentally juggle multiple 747s seems to go against the idea that aging hurts the ability to pay attention. But studies show that selective attention, the ability to focus on something and resist distractions, doesn't decline with age. For controllers, that means they can focus on planes in their sector despite a hubbub of activity in the control tower.

For other seniors, it means no problem keeping eyes and mind on a highway despite flashing road signs or noisy passengers.

The biggest benefit of an older brain is that fewer real-life challenges require deliberate, effortful problem-solving. Where once it took hours of methodical scrutiny to understand a prospectus, for instance, older lawyers and investment bankers can zoom in on crucial sections and fit them into what they already know.

While younger brains solve problems step-by-step, older brains call on cognitive templates, those generic outlines of a problem and a solution that worked before. Yes, older people forget little things, and may have occasional attention lapses, but their cognitive templates are so rich that they more than hold their own. Their brains can keep up even with a diminished supply of blood and oxygen.

As a result, older professionals can readily separate what's important from what's not, a big reason so many of them fire on all cognitive cylinders well past age 65.

"Some things you just need to grind into your system for many years until they become automatic and seemingly effortless," says Naftali Raz of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University in Detroit. "Automatic functions are least sensitive to aging. So, if the decisions are based on knowledge and skill, older folks may have an advantage over younger decision makers just because they have to do less mental heavy lifting."

The benefits that come to the mind and brain with age extend beyond thinking. They also include a greater ability to put yourself in another person's mind, empathizing and understanding his thought processes -- emotional wisdom.

Exercise your brain to prevent memory loss

In the Rainbow Years we quote research which shows the importance of exercising our brains to stay young so we were interested to read of a new study which found that during later years, reading books, playing games, participating in computer activities and doing craft activities, led to a 30 to 50 per cent decrease in the risk of developing memory loss compared to people who did not do those activities. It revealed people who participated in social activities and read magazines during middle age were about 40 per cent less likely to develop memory loss. The results add scientific weight to the long-held belief that remaining active both mentally and physically later in life is one of the keys to maintaining good health. The findings will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st annual meeting in Seattle, in April.

Boost your ageing brain

Having been joking with you about walking we will now counter that with the latest research which shows clearly that exercise is the best remedy of all to prevent an ageing brain.

From the age of 40 we lose 5per cent of our brain volume every decade. This occurs because the synapses - the area between brain cells through which information is transferred - erode, eventually severing the connections.

The tiny capillaries that feed the brain also shrink with age, restricting blood flow to the area and so exacerbating the problem. This explains much of the forgetfulness of old age.

Dr Ratey’s investigations have found that exercise can reverse the impact of aging on the brain. The earlier you start the better, because if you have a stronger, more connected brain before the natural aging process takes hold, it will resist damage that much longer.

He cites a study where a group of previously sedentary people in their 70s went to the gym three times a week for an hour.

After six months, MRI scans showed significant increase in brain volume in each of them - their brains looked two to three years younger.

Aerobic exercise - anything which raises the heart rate and gets blood pumping - helps.

So, too, does strength training (either with weights, or using your own body as resistance through push ups, squats and lunges). These all release growth factors that help make new brain cells. Follow the hyperlink that we have given above for a number of suggested exercise programmes that will ensure that your brain may even become younger than your body.

Be Positive in 2009

Having had some media interviews recently it is revealing just what the interviewers highlight and what they remember later. One quote that was repeated consistently on a radio programme was the point that of all of the people on this planet who had ever lived to the age of 65 half of them were alive today.

The other statistic that had impact was the 7.5 years that you can add to your life by simply having a positive attitude towards ageing and life in general. This is especially intriguing when you compare it to the extra 4 years one can expect if you have low blood pressure and cholesterol levels or the 1-3 additional years from exercise and giving up smoking. I was also interested to see that the Times on Saturday was quoting this research as part of its tips on getting the most out of the New Year. Why this works is less clear so we were interested to read of a recent Harvard Medical School study of 670 men which found that the optimists have significantly better lung function. The lead author, Dr Rosalind Wright, believes that attitude somehow strengthens the immune system. “Preliminary studies on heart patients suggest that, by changing a person's outlook, you can improve their mortality risk,” she says.

So now you know what your No 1 New Years resolution needs to be!

Recommendations

As we talk to more and people about this project with 50 pluses we get asked from where can people buy the book. At the moment the cheapest price is through Amazon which is why we are now advertising it on this site. We also get asked about other related books that we have found useful so we will add those to our little widget on the site. ( Hope you are impressed with this growing evidence of our becoming late life techies.) I have just added a really excellent and very readable and amusing book on the brain by Prof. John Medina. He describes 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school. The hardback version comes with a very engrossing DVD which gives examples of what he is talking about. its more expensive than the paperback but I think it is worth the extra money for the DVD. If we recommend books like this please do let us know your reaction if you read any of them.

Surfing the Internet Boosts Aging Brains

New research suggests that the simple act of Googling may be good for your brain health.

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have shown that searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings suggest that searching the Web helps to stimulate and may even improve brain function.

The U.C.L.A. researchers studied 24 healthy people between the ages of 55 and 76. Half of the study participants had experience searching the Internet, whereas the other half had no experience. Participants performed Web searches and book-reading tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, which measure the level of cerebral blood flow.

While all participants demonstrated the same brain activity during the book-reading task, the Web-savvy group also registered activity in areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning, the researchers said.

“Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading — but only in those with prior Internet experience,” said principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, director of U.C.L.A.’s Memory and Aging Research Center, in a press release.

“The study results are encouraging that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults,” Dr. Small said. “Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”

During Web searching, the Web-savvy volunteers showed a twofold increase in brain activation when compared with those who had little Internet experience. The tiniest measurable unit of brain activity registered by the functional M.R.I. is called a voxel. During Internet searching, those with prior Web experience sparked 21,782 voxels, compared with only 8,646 voxels for those with less experience.

The researchers noted that compared with reading, the Internet’s wealth of choices requires that people make decisions about what to click on, an activity that engages important cognitive circuits in the brain. Dr. Small said the minimal brain activation shown by the less experienced Internet users may be due to the fact that it was a new experience, and the Web users weren’t yet adept at clicking around and making choices. He said that with more experience, the novice Web users may eventually demonstrate the same level of brain activity as the more computer-savvy participants.

“A simple, everyday task like searching the Web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older,” Dr. Small said.

Dr. Small is the author of a new book, “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.”

So keep Googling to stay mentally alert.