When does the brain start to decline?

Our mental abilities start to go at a younger age than thought, a researcher has found.

Age 22 is when the brain peaks in terms of the speed of thoughts, ability to reason and visual problem solving ability, psychology professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia reported in the April issue of the journal Neurobiology of Aging.


"Some aspects of age-related cognitive decline begin in healthy educated adults when they are in their 20s and 30s," Salthouse concluded.


In the study, Salthouse looked at 2,000 healthy people aged 18 to 60 for an average of seven years.


Test scores started going downhill at age 27, he found.


But vocabulary skills and general knowledge actually improved until age 60.


Study participants solved problems, recalled words and story details and were asked to find patterns in letters and symbols tests like those used to spot signs of dementia.

In other words, that old adage about "If you don't use it you're going to lose it" applies to our brain fitness much earlier in our lives than previously thought.

So what can you do today, especially if you are beyond the ripe old age of 27, to not only prevent cognitive decline but enhance cognitive performance?

Their are four or five areas of attention which require regular effort on our part in order for our brains to stay sharp.

Alvaro Fernandez at Sharp Brains says that the four pillars of brain fitness involve good nutrition, stress management, novel learning challenges, and physical exercise.

Simon Evans, Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt, Ph.D. add in the area of sleep to the above list.

If we take care of getting our brains the nutritional ingredients they need and provide the intellectual stimulation, our brains will continue to grow new synapses and dendrites, our brains will incorporate new neurons (neurogenesis) into existing neuronal circuits, which offsets the neuronal deaths that happen every day from ordinary wear and tear, let alone tax season, and if we provide novel challenge, like learning a new language for example, a new instrument, or any new topic, our brains will very easily handle what Professor Salthouse describes in his work.

If we do not provide novel learning experiences to our brains, they will prune new neurons and synapses to utilize resources somewhere else. So learn something today.

Perhaps the most important part of keeping brains at their best is physical exercise.Home made high intensity interval training with equipment as simple as a balance ball, which gets you breathing at least deep enough to make it hard to talk or even sing while exercising, will keep your neurogenesis strong, offsetting the declines Professor Salthouse notes.

Our brains are the most energy intensive organ we have, and they do not store energy, so energy and nutrients have to constantly be supplied to neurons, and exercise gets extra blood with its nutrients to the brain, and helps brains increase the number of available blood vessels.

The body will build what we need, and pare what is not being used.

Nutrition must include eating lots of fruit and vegetables, vine ripened, hopefully locally grown, which contain anti-oxidants, phytochemicals, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. Try blue berries.

If you need supplements, a good multi-vitamin and definitely omega 3's are mandatory to keep neurons healthy, and connecting away.

Lots of important consolidation and hormonal activity happens in our brains when we are sleeping, and if you shorten your sleep unnecessarily, then those consolidations are not completed and brain deficits happen. So get your sleep.

Last but not least, there are a number of brain fitness programs available which stimulate neurons in novel ways.

Take advantage of them to help keep your brain going full tilt until it is way older than 27. Some of the research on those programs is nothing short of miraculous!.

Use them sitting at your computer before and after your work out, your nap, and your big salad full of colorful vegetables, and then send a note to Professor Salthouse about your progress.

Nintendo "brain games" no more effective than low-budget puzzles: researchers

"Edu-tainment" games like the popular Brain Training series (available on the Nintendo DS console) have been credited with bringing a new group of older users to gaming. The game features a number of activities, such as solving math problems, counting currency and unscrambling letters, that Nintendo says is based on the work of Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima.

"The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it's fine,” Alain Lieury of the University of Rennes in Brittany, told the Times of London “But it is charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test.”

Lieury conducted a study with 67 10-year-old children, who are at an age where he says they have the best chance of improvement in brain performance.

He split the children into four groups — two did a seven-week memory improvement course, while the other did puzzles with pencil and paper, and the last went to school as normal.

At the end of the seven-week period, all the children were given tests to measure memory, logic, arithmetic skills and symbol interpretation.

Lieury found no significant improvement in memory among the first two groups — in fact, they registered a decline. The group with paper and pencil did 33 per cent better in memory tests. The Nintendo group did 17 per cent worse.

The Nintendo group did fare better in math tests — a 19 per cent improvement — and that number was replicated in the paper-and pencil-group, while the fourth group improved 18 per cent.

Nintendo, in response, told the Daily Telegraph that it never claimed to have scientifically improved cognitive ability.

Nintendo's website, which doesn't explicitly say Brain Age improves a user's intelligence or memory, nevertheless says it features games "designed to help stimulate your brain and give it the workout it needs .…"

"The design of Brain Age is based on the premise that cognitive exercise can improve blood flow to the brain."

Lieury says doing puzzles like Sudoku or playing Scrabble would be just as effective as playing games like Brain Training. Lieury's findings will be published in Stimulate Your Neurones, a book due out later this month.