Toronto University study reveals why aging is good for you

  • Researchers at the University of Toronto have analyzed brain connections in people aged between 22 and 36 years old
  • After 30, healthy brains are more focused and better at processing information
  • But some people suffer a delay in that development and are prone to anxiety

By

Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com


Published:
19:16 EDT, 17 July 2017

|
Updated:
19:27 EDT, 18 July 2017

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Many 20-somethings fear turning 30, desperate not to lose their youthfulness.

But a new study has shown why ageing is good for your intelligence, brain connectivity, and mental health.

In fact, the researchers at the University of Toronto have found, those who suffer more anxiety and depression at hitting the milestone are likely suffering a delay in their brain development. 

The research sheds new light on the impact each person’s physical development has on mental health, and how that shifts over time. 

For the study, the team of researchers led by Raluca Petrican and Cheryl Grady focused on how our inhibition changes over time, and how brain connections affect that transition. 

They analyzed MRI scans of 359 adults aged between 22 and 36 years old. 

From this data they could identify the typical brain patterns of someone in their early adulthood, compared to someone in their middle adulthood and late adulthood. 

They also looked at how brain patterns changed depending if the person was working, compared to if they were in a social situation.

Healthy people over 30 – the majority – had brain scans which showed more focus. 

They utilized fewer specialized brain regions than the earlier adulthood pattern, meaning they were able to more efficiently process information.

They were also more inhibited – a useful trait, the researchers said, to better control their actions and decisions.  

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But in some people, that was not the case, and it seemed to negatively influence their mental health.  

Crucially, they found a correlation between 30-somethings who self-reported psychological problems, and brain scans that showed underdevelopment of the brain network.  

Together, these findings indicate that inhibition is a late-developing ability important for healthy psychological functioning in mid-adulthood.

‘It is a failure to develop this profile [greater inibition and control] before the age of 30 that is linked to real-life psychological problems,’ the authors write in the study. 

‘Over 30, when most neurobehavioural fine tuning processes have presumably concluded, poorer expression of the late inhibition profile likely signals developmental abnormalities or delays.’

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