Daily Archives: July 11, 2018

Health, Medical, Research, Science

Brain health linked to how young or old you feel

NEUROSCIENCE STUDY

Besides improving your physical and mental health, feeling younger can also slow down the rate of brain ageing, finds a study.

THE young at heart often insist you are only as old as you feel.

A newly released study has proved they are right, finding that those who feel younger than they are show fewer signs of brain ageing.

Neuroscientists who gave a group of people aged 59 to 84 MRI scans found that those who said they felt younger had more grey matter in their brains and did better in memory tests.

The researchers suggested that those who feel their age or older have picked up on small cognitive changes in their brain, such as mild memory loss. The study, carried out by the University of Seoul in South Korea, is the first to link how old people feel with the physical signs of brain ageing.

Co-author Dr Jeanyung Chey said: “We found people who feel younger have the structural characteristics of a younger brain.

“Importantly, this difference remains robust even when other possible factors – including personality, subjective health, depressive symptoms or cognitive functions – are accounted for. If somebody feels older than their age, it could be a sign for them to evaluate their lifestyle, habits and activities that could contribute to brain ageing and take measures to better care for their brain health.”

The researchers asked 68 healthy people whether they felt older or younger than they were, or whether they felt their age. When their brains were scanned, those who felt younger had more grey matter in key regions such as the hippocampus which is linked to memory.

The scans showed their brains had actually aged less than those of people who felt older, as grey matter tends to decline with age.

The youthful-feeling group also did better in memory tests, including tasks such as recalling details from a story 15 to 30 minutes after hearing it. The researchers suggested that those who feel older may be able to sense the ageing process in their brain as their loss of grey matter may make cognitive tasks more challenging.

Another possibility is that those who feel younger are more likely to lead a more physically and mentally active life, which could cause improvements in brain health. Previous studies have suggested that asking people how old they feel can predict if they will develop dementia, become frail or be taken to hospital. Those who feel older than their age are also more likely to be overweight and suffer illnesses associated with being obese.

Dr Chey, whose study was first published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, said: “Why do some people feel younger or older than their real age?

“Some possibilities include depressive states, personality differences or physical health.

“However, no one had investigated brain ageing processes as a possible reason for differences in subjective age.”

The results suggest that feeling older than one’s age may reflect relatively faster ageing brain structures. Those who feel younger have better-preserved and healthier brain structures.

Some of the biggest changes in grey matter based on age perception were found in the inferior pre-frontal cortex, which helps in suppressing irrelevant information. Loss in this region could cause age-related problems in tasks requiring focus and concentration.

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Arts, Books

Golden Man Booker Prize: ‘The English Patient’

BEST BOOKER PRIZE IN 50 YEARS

The English Patient

Set at the end of World War II, this novel explores the lives of four very disparate people who find themselves holed up together in a ruined villa north of Florence as the war retreats around them. The author was awarded the 1992 Booker Prize for this book.

THE ‘English Patient’ has been crowned the best ever Man Booker prize winner.

The novel by Michael Ondaatje was chosen by the public as the recipient for the Golden Man Booker prize, a one-off accolade to mark its 50th anniversary.

All 51 previous winners of the prize were considered by a panel of five judges, each of whom was asked to read the winning novels from one decade of the prize’s history, before the books faced a month-long public vote.

The panel judges were journalist Robert McCrum, who chose In a Free State by VS Naipaul for the 1970s; poet Lemn Sissay, who chose Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively for the 1980s; novelist Kamila Shamsie, who chose the English Patient for the 1990s; broadcaster Simon Mayo, who chose Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for the 2000s; and, poet Hollie McNish, who chose Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders for the 2010s.

Speaking about why she had chosen The English Patient, Miss Shamsie said: “The English Patient is that rare novel which gets under your skin and insists you return to it time and again, always yielding a new surprise or delight.”

The novel – written by Sri-Lankan born Ondaatje in 1992 – tells of the entanglement of four people in an Italian villa, including an English burns victim, as the Second World War ends.

It was adapted into a multiple Oscar-winning film in 1996 starring Kristin Scott Thomas, pictured.

Baroness Helena Kennedy, chairman of the Booker Prize Foundation, added: “The English Patient is a compelling work of fiction – both poetic and philosophical – and is a worthy winner.” The winner was announced at a ceremony at the Southbank Centre in London.

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