So, moral of the story: old brains aren't necessarily senile brains. The old, apparently, are more likely to infer correctly that a person is dishonest, kind or intelligent. This greater sensitivity seems to translate into greater emotional equanimity, a keen emotional intelligence and ability to judge character. The greater activity suggests better control of reactions to other people's anger, fear and the like.
Using fMRI brain imaging, it was found that circuits in "medial prefrontal" areas - right behind the forehead - were more active in older people when processing negative emotional expressions. Add to that the fact that selective attention, the ability to focus on something and resist distractions, doesn't decline with age. This ability becomes crucial in work-situations, where there's usually a lot of data present to base the decisions on. They reflexively adopt the pattern based approach to problem solving, more than the step-by-step logical solving (which they were doing when they were young). Aged professionals find that they can grasp the essence of data presented more readily than they once could. The biggest benefit of an older brain is that fewer real-life challenges require deliberate, effortful problem-solving. What the aging brain loses in one area, gains in another. leading to trouble with short-term memory Expert knowledge - information about an occupational or even hobbyist specialty - resists the effects of aging. Not if you are younger.Īlthough the aging brain is subject to enfeeblements such as - shrinking, connections between neurons becoming sparser, blood flow and oxygen supply falling etc. Should you challenge a 75 year old, sharp guy for crossword puzzle.
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