Of course, science is also showing us that age is more than a series of brain breakdowns that can be prevented only through diligent work and advanced cognition. Time also brings subtle vet meaningful positive changes to the brain, acquired through years of experience, that add to the qualitv of life. Dr. Gene Cohen, founding director of the Center on Aging, Health, and Humanities at George Washington University Medical Center, has discovered that the changes that come with aging actually make adults more able, as he writes, to “fulfill our own dreams.”
Cohen found that though neurons lose processing speed as they age, they also have learned far more than young brains. This learning is represented physically in the dense maze of neural connections to be seen in an older brain. Cohen writes, “Magnified tremendously, the brain of a mentally active fifty-year-old looks like a dense forest of interlocking branches, ;and this density reflects both deeper knowledge and better judgment. That’s why age is such an advantage in fields like editing, law, medicine, coaching, and management. There is no substitute for acquired learning.”
You could call that the acquisition of wisdom. Cohen points out that with age our brains become in some ways less rigid and more adaptable, so that left-brained linear thinking and right-brained creativity are not as separate as they once were. Older people tend to use both sides of their brains more to solve problems, and are better at merging intuition with hard data to arrive at a conclusion. There is a reason why most CEOs are over fifty.
They trust their gut but also rely on their logic for confirmation.
In addition, research has shown that older adults’ brains show more emotional equanimity. The primitive part of the brain that brings out the fear response toward anything unknown becomes more dormant and positive feelings tend to replace negative attitudes. This is doubtless the source of emotional maturity, and it is related to one of the greatest rewards of the later years: deeper, more compelling personal relationships.
Studies show that people with strong social networks in the last one-third of life live longer, experience fewer health problems, and feel a greater sense of well-being than those who do not. Being with others is great for your health and your brain. One of the reasons for this is the damaging effect that stress, depression, and social isolation have on the brain. Chronic stress produces elevated levels of the hormone cortical, which actually shrinks the memory centers in the brain and kills memory neurons. On the other hand, a recent UCLA study showed that when women of any age get together they produce more of the hormone Oxycontin, which creates feelings of bonding and belonging. So deep, satisfying relationships—with circles of friends who go back decades, with fellow members of spiritually oriented centers and activist organizations, or with family members—are magic for alleviating stress and creating feelings of pleasure that bathe vour brain in health.