Even the oldest brains are still producing new neurons.
Healthy older men and women grow as many new brain cells as younger people.
It had been thought for a long time that older people cannot grow new brain cells.
However, research is finding that older people can remain more cognitively and emotionally intact than previously thought.
Dr Maura Boldrini, who led the study, explained the results:
“We found that older people have similar ability to make thousands of hippocampal new neurons from progenitor cells as younger people do.
We also found equivalent volumes of the hippocampus (a brain structure used for emotion and cognition) across ages.
Nevertheless, older individuals had less vascularization and maybe less ability of new neurons to make connections.”
For the study, the brains of 28 people who had died suddenly were examined for evidence of new brain cells.
The results showed that even the oldest brains (79 years-old) were still producing new neurons.
The cognitive decline some experience with age could be down to worse connectivity between neurons and a smaller pool of neural stem cells.
Dr Boldrini said:
“It is possible that ongoing hippocampal neurogenesis sustains human-specific cognitive function throughout life and that declines may be linked to compromised cognitive-emotional resilience.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell (Boldrini et al., 2018).
