Andy’s Quick Hits (69): Yay! Some Critical Mental Abilities Improve With Age

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Now this is the type of research I like to read at the age of 52, pushing 53. We know sporting ability tends to peak at between 24–28 for most sports, similarly we know that mathematical ability peaks early, late 20s. But from then on, many assume, it is all downhill, albeit at a slow pace, then with ever increasing speed.

However, there has been hope for those ageing. We know that certain mental functions improve or stay with age, Wisdom increases as we age, as does vocabulary. Increasingly we have seen a whole bunch of sports people lasting longer and longer — the big 3 in Tennis are all well into their 30’s unthinkable 20 years ago.

But this piece of research nails down more cognitive skills that improve with age and they are really important cognitive skills at that. The researchers around John Verssimo at Georgetown University Medical Center looked into brain networks involved in alerting, orienting, and executive inhibition in 702 participants aged between 58 and 92.

Key Mental Abilities Can Actually Improve During Aging - Georgetown University Medical Center

“These results are amazing, and have important consequences for how we should view aging,” — Michael Ullman

First the bad news, alerting ability does decrease with age, as do our reactions, but moving swiftly on to the good news: orienting and executive inhibition both improve with age. These allow us to shift our focus quickly and keep focused better on what we should be doing and avoid distractions.

These are just as critical in driving a car, an example the researchers use, and in business but also in sports. They hypothesise that these areas are partly skill based and can therefore improve with lifelong practice.

So there you go. Critical mental abilities can and do keep improving with age — but you must keep active and using your abilities for them to remain or improve. So no excuse to slouch in your old(er) age…

Andy publishes a quick hit every weekday on all things the brain, behaviour, and business. Please follow to receive your daily dose.

Andy is author of leading brains Review a monthly e-magazine on all things the brain, behaviour, and business.

Reference:

John Verssimo, Paul Verhaeghen, Noreen Goldman, Maxine Weinstein, Michael T. Ullman. Evidence that ageing yields improvements as well as declines across attention and executive functions. Nature Human Behaviour, 2021; DOI: 10.1038/s41562–021–01169–7