{"id":620204,"date":"2026-10-04T09:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/620204\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T09:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:34:15","slug":"new-study-suggests-the-ageing-brain-is-adapting-not-declining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/620204\/","title":{"rendered":"New study suggests the ageing brain is adapting, not declining"},"content":{"rendered":"

He said we should think about the ageing brain not as a young person\u2019s brain in decline, but as one specifically adapted to prioritise wisdom.<\/p>\n

Ageing as a developmental phase<\/p>\n

Fernandez and his colleagues point to a body of research showing that older adults\u2019 brains rely less on the hippocampus, which is responsible for forming and recalling new memories, including details like names and places and spatial navigation.<\/p>\n

Instead, during memory tasks<\/a>, older brains are relying more on the frontal cortex, the area associated with higher-level thinking and synthesising information.<\/p>\n

Some scientists have argued that ageing brains rely on the cortex to compensate for decline in the hippocampus, which shrinks over our lives. But Fernandez offers a different theory: In later adulthood, we need wisdom more than we need to retain every new detail we come across.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this ability to melt away that which does not matter and get to the essence of an issue,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

Other research has suggested that healthy ageing could be simply another phase of the brain\u2019s development, bringing new strengths and weaknesses. Children, for instance, have an extraordinary ability to learn language but might have more difficulty than adults with emotional regulation and impulse control. For someone in their 70s, 80s or older, it might be helpful to focus less on memorising minutiae and more on understanding a bigger picture.<\/p>\n

A takeaway for older adults<\/a> is that memory changes might be beneficial in later phases of life, according to Daniel Nation, a professor of gerontology and neurology at the University of Southern California who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be some cognitive benefits to older adults that come from cognitive changes we normally think of as purely negative,\u201d Nation said of the new paper.<\/p>\n

He noted the \u201cgrandmother hypothesis,\u201d a theory about the wisdom and perspective of older members of the community when it comes to making decisions and imparting knowledge to younger people.<\/p>\n

A call for more research<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s provocative,\u201d said Patricia Reuter-Lorenz, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan who conducted some of the studies cited in the new paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taking a new step that\u2019s building on ideas that have been in the literature on ageing for several decades, including the idea that ageing involves adaptive processes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"OlderOlder adults rely more on the frontal cortex during memory tasks. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n

Reuter-Lorenz\u2019s work has pointed to older adults using their frontal cortex to compensate for the weakening of the hippocampus. But she said she is interested in the silver linings of old age and is currently studying emotion later in life.<\/p>\n

She said her work is \u201ctrying to understand the tendency for older adults to have a more positive outlook and better emotion regulation\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is advancing existing research showing that older adults tend to focus more on the positive aspects of a situation, and remember them more than negative ones.<\/p>\n

Both Reuter-Lorenz and Fernandez say the idea of brain ageing as an adaptive phase more than a declining one needs more study.<\/p>\n

How to help your brain age well <\/p>\n

Regardless of whether scientists believe that the older brain is adapting to a new phase of life or compensating for decline, they suggest that there are ways we can all age better.<\/p>\n

In Fernandez\u2019s paper, he and his colleagues write that older people who \u201cengage in lifelong learning, complex occupations, or high social activity\u201d tend to have more flexible brains. That means they can continue to navigate complicated tasks even as the hippocampus shrinks.<\/p>\n

Reuter-Lorenz agreed that lifestyle factors are key.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolid fitness, a good diet and sleep are all very important. And maintaining an active social network and cognitive engagement,\u201d she said. \u201cThose are the pillars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reuter-Lorenz also emphasised that the upsides of ageing should continue to be acknowledged by researchers, especially since having a positive view of ageing seems to help people age better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are treasures in ageing that can be cherished,\u201d Reuter-Lorenz said. \u201cAnd that may only come with age.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said we should think about the ageing brain not as a young person\u2019s brain in decline, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3225,250101,10791,1596,25204,181,6101,134,185,117,111,139,5006,69,24808,1523,262206,16513,70182,2214,383,30947,223,46350],"class_list":["post-620204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-according","tag-adapting","tag-ageing","tag-brain","tag-declining","tag-details","tag-good","tag-health","tag-is","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-older","tag-over","tag-prioritises","tag-reason","tag-remembering","tag-researchers","tag-study","tag-suggests","tag-the","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}