Development of the Human Brain With Aging

The brain and its processes remains one of the great mysteries of our day. There is much to be discovered and learned about the intricacies of mental thought. The effects of aging on the brain is a subject that we are still learning about.

Physical Effects

• According to the book The Aging Brain by Lawrence J. Whalley, M.D., the brain begins to shrink at about the age of 50. This is caused by water loss in the cells of the brain, causing them to decrease in size. At the age of 50, a brain generally weighs around 3.1 pounds. Fifteen years later, it will weigh around 2.5 pounds.

Mental Effects

• According to a study published in Neuroimage in 2002, older people test more poorly than younger people in activities that involve attention, perception and memory.

Brain Cell Activity

• According to Dr. Whalley, older brain cells consistently use less glucose. This is a sign that these brain cells are doing less work. Reaction times also begin to slow down with age, which is another sign of decreasing brain activity.

Memory

• According to Dr. Whalley, memory loss is one of the most common effects of an aging brain. This is explained by decreasing amounts of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. According to an articles published in Trends in Cognitive Science in 2002, older subjects were consistently outperformed by younger subjects when they were given the tasks such as remembering a list of item and then attempting to recall the list after several minutes.

Different Processes

• According to the article published in Trends in Cognitive Science, as the brain grows older it processes tasks in different ways. Older brains generally utilize both hemispheres to accomplish tasks that younger brain perform with only one hemisphere. At times, these changes in brain processes allow older individuals to perform tasks comparably with younger people. Neuroscientists have theorized that this change is a result of the brain attempting to adapt to the detrimental effects of aging.