Cambridge scientists find older people's brains can adapt to problem solve
The breakthrough might change how we deal with elderly patients
Last updated 13th Feb 2024
A study led by scientists at the University of Cambridge found strong evidence that as we age, our brains can compensate for decline by using other areas to help with brain function.
This compensation may explain why some people maintain better brain function than others as they age.
The study, published in the journal eLife, showed that when the brain recruits other areas, it improves performance, especially in older individuals.
Study lead Dr Kamen Tsvetanov, an Alzheimer's Society Dementia Research Leader Fellow in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, said: “Our ability to solve abstract problems is a sign of so-called ‘fluid intelligence’, but as we get older, this ability begins to show significant decline.
"Some people manage to maintain this ability better than others. We wanted to ask why that was the case – are they able to recruit other areas of the brain to overcome changes in the brain that would otherwise be detrimental?”
Researchers from the University of Cambridge studied brain activity in 223 adults aged 19 to 87 to see how the brain compensates for age-related changes.
They used brain imaging while participants solved puzzles. As expected, older adults had more difficulty solving puzzles, but their brains still showed activity.
The researchers found that older adults had increased activity in the cuneus, a brain region involved in visual processing, which helped them perform better on the task, suggesting a compensatory mechanism for age-related cognitive decline.
Dr Ethan Knights from the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge said: “Now that we’ve seen this compensation happening, we can start to ask questions about why it happens for some older people, but not others, and in some tasks, but not others.
"Is there something special about these people – their education or lifestyle, for example – and if so, is there a way we can intervene to help others see similar benefits?”
Dr Alexa Morcom from the University of Sussex’s School of Psychology and Sussex Neuroscience research centre, said: “This new finding also hints that compensation in later life does not rely on the multiple demand network as previously assumed, but recruits areas whose function is preserved in ageing.”
The research was supported by the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, the Guarantors of Brain, and the Alzheimer’s Society.