It's not all downhill – knowledge and experience boost ‘the positivity effect,' while other abilities become surprisingly stronger. Photo / Getty Images
It's not all downhill – knowledge and experience boost ‘the positivity effect,' while other abilities become surprisingly stronger. Photo / Getty Images
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At the age of 39 I ordered myself a rather dubious present: a glossy, brown GCSE maths workbook, the sort I hadn’t handled since my teenage years.
Having resisted the infinite charms of algebra for so long, would it be too late to teach myself some new tricks? Continuing to challenge yourself by learning is one of the cornerstone pieces of advice meted out by lifestyle journalists. Hem, hem.
There’s a perception that unless you fight the ageing process, it’s all a bit of a slippery slope after 40, whether it’s taking up the weight-training cudgels to fight off sarcopenia (age-related progressive loss of muscle mass and strength) or learning a new instrument or language to enhance neuronal communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
However, cognitive function is an area of ageing that experts believe is widely misunderstood. A long way from a slow decline of the mind, more recent scientific research has unveiled that ageing is a more complex and malleable process than we anticipated.
Our brains are made up of grey and white matter. Grey matter is the area where the actual processing is done whereas the white matter provides the communication between different grey matter areas and between the grey matter and the rest of the body.
“There are changes in brain size over age,” says Prof Tara Spires-Jones of the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh. “We have the most grey matter when we are babies, and that drops off pretty steeply in the first two years of life and continues to decline as you age.”
Meanwhile, white matter increases until we’re about 40 and then it declines slightly.
“Myelination, the brain maturation process where axonal bundles are wrapped by myelin sheaths to help them conduct faster, is actually happening well into adulthood. So we’re getting more myelin as we grow until we’re 40, when it peaks; then it starts to decline.”
How this is expressed in our intelligence day to day means that general, fluid intelligence (the ability to solve unfamiliar problems) begins to decline from age 30 onwards, and crystallised intelligence (the ability to use existing knowledge or skills) begins to decline more slowly from the age of 40.
By looking at images of MRI scans through the ages of 19 to 95 we can even see how the brain shrinks over time. However it’s not all doom and gloom, says Prof Spires: “The good news is that it doesn’t exactly track the function.” While fluid capabilities such as speed and memory decline more rapidly as we age, it appears that certain cognitive abilities, such as vocabulary, are slower to deteriorate.
What’s more, the amygdala, a critical brain structure for emotional recognition and processing, remains relatively stable with age, unlike the prefrontal cortex responsible for executive functions, adds Dr Sophie Mort, clinical psychologist and mental health expert at Headspace.
So what we lack in speed and recall, we begin to compensate with experience, judgment and emotional intelligence. The result is, there are actually some things we improve at with age.
'Recent scientific research has unveiled that ageing is a more complex and malleable process than we anticipated,' writes Fox-Leonard. Photo / Getty Images
Anyone who has ever been thrashed at a card game by a seven-year-old can attest to how ferociously fast their minds can be. However, you’re unlikely to go to them for career or relationship advice. And while older people might not have the answer to the meaning of life, they’re more likely to have sussed out what’s worth stressing about.
“Interestingly,” says Dr Mort, “older individuals tend to favour positive information over negative, directing their attention and memory toward the good, while younger individuals often see the negative first. This phenomenon of ageing has even earned its own name among researchers: ‘the positivity effect’.”
A superior range of problem-solving skills, particularly those that involve experience and accumulated knowledge, is why even as muscular strength is starting to decline, some sportspeople peak later in life. That’s why asking an experienced hand, rather than the young star striker, to take a penalty is a often a sound strategy for a football manager. And it seems that with age comes greater resilience: many long-distance runners don’t peak until they’re in their 40s.
All in all, while I’m probably not going to be solving any equations in record time, there’s no reason I shouldn’t challenge myself to get better at maths.
As the author of Neuroscience for Coaches and founder of Synaptic Potential, Amy Brann works with businesses to understand how neuroplasticity is influenced by how intentional you are at challenging your brain.
“Your brain will continue to change: the question is, is it just happening or are you being a co-collaborator with your brain to help it to get better at the things that are important to you?”
While there are some aspects to our cognitive processing that do decline, learning to work in a different way and by tweaking how they learn, means an individual can continue to have the same output.
“Decline in short-term memory and holding and manipulating information in our brains diminishes in our mid-20s, but what we know from bodies of research is that those individuals can become more creative and innovative and have better decision-making skills with age.”
This is the crucial point, says Dr Aideen Young, senior evidence manager at the Centre for Ageing Better. “It is important that people should see ageing as an enriching process with potential for personal growth and self-improvement.
“Society’s messages often tell us that ageing is a process of inevitable decline, even though there is a lot of scientific evidence that shows that there are many things which do improve with age.”
Short-term memory begins to weaken at 40, but emotional intelligence peaks in middle-to-later adulthood. Photo / Getty Images
Here are seven ways in which your peak may still be ahead of you...
In 2020 the results of a 125-year study of 24,000 chess games from 1890 to 2014 found that players made the most optimal moves at about 40. Performance started to decline from about 45, but not to a statistically significant degree.
“We know chess uses long-term memory rather than short-term memory,” says Brann. “Training and the accumulation of experience seem to confer a lasting advantage.”
Brann works with companies to show how we can apply this principle to other areas of our work and personal lives. “Ask what are the skills I need and how can I practise and focus to get better at them,” she says.
Physical endurance
Age 45
You might not be able to run to the end of your road, but wait a few years and you may just surprise yourself. A 2020 study of people who had finished 100km ultramarathons found that women peaked at between 40 and 44, and men at 45 to 49. A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that older endurance athletes (over 40 years old) can maintain their cardiovascular fitness levels well into old age. “This supports the idea that endurance capacities can remain strong as we age,” says Prof Paul Lee, consultant orthopaedic surgeon and regenerative medicine doctor.
Data shows that, the longer the race – duration or distance – the older the peak performance seems to come.
However this may have more to do with mental than muscle strength. A 2019 study in Frontiers in Physiology showed that older athletes exhibited better emotional regulation and mental resilience compared to younger athletes, which can be beneficial for enduring the physical and mental challenges of long races.
No doubt a clear advantage that older runners exhibit is better pain tolerance. According to a paper in the journal Pain Medicine, older individuals show higher pain tolerance than younger counterparts, which can be especially useful in endurance sports.
Better technique and efficiency plays a part: “Older runners also exhibit biomechanical efficiency, essentially utilising energy more effectively, which compensates for age-related decline in muscle strength,” says Prof Lee.
Greater sporting skill
Age 50-plus
Dig out the golf clubs. As well as helping endurance, older athletes can fine-tune their sporting skills by drawing on their powers of enhanced decision-making. Research in the Journal of Sports Sciences suggests that older athletes have superior decision-making skills under pressure, “possibly because they draw upon a greater reservoir of experience,” says Prof Lee.
And while your golf swing may have lost some of its power, a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology revealed that older golfers, for example, tend to have a more stable and refined technique, which can offset declines in physical strength or speed.
Mathematical ability
Age 50
A 2015 study into cognitive peaks by Dr Joshua Hartshorne, professor of psychology at Boston College, and Dr Laura Germine, studied historical IQ testing data for more than 2,000 Americans. One of the later-life peaks they found unexpectedly was arithmetic ability, with test subjects best able to solve arithmetic problems around age 50.
A different 2015 study published in Frontiers of Psychology found that ageing seems to have a positive impact on mathematical ability and basic symbolic numerical processing.
This is because “older participants attained significantly higher mathematical achievement scores, and performed significantly better on the symbolic comparison task than younger participants”.
Two 2015 studies found that ageing seems to have a positive impact on mathematical ability. Photo / Getty Images
The findings suggested that ageing and its lifetime exposure to numbers may lead to better mathematical achievement and stronger basic symbolic numerical skills.
The reason can be found in the scaffolding theory of ageing and cognition, which posits that the brain responds to declines by recruiting assistance, which means it replaces a response typically dedicated to a single area with a pattern of layered responses involving several areas.
Brain scans of older people show they engage more of their faculties in solving a problem than young people do. The acronym “Harold” is used to describe this form of brain plasticity: “hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults”.
Verbal prowess
Age 65-plus
If you are a wordsmith who loves to learn new words, then you may not yet have reached your lexical peak.
A 2014 study by psychologist Timothy A Salthouse used cross-sectional and longitudinal data to confirm that age-related declines in measures of the quantity of word knowledge begin around age 65.
Hartshorne and Germine, who included a vocabulary test to measure crystallised intelligence in their study of cognitive peaks, similarly found that vocabulary peaks in the late 60s or 70s.
After the first flush of youth it’s fair to say we have a better understanding of what makes for a flourishing romantic relationship. And good looks aren’t a deal-breaker when it comes to attraction.
A recent study published in scientific journal PLOS One demonstrated the importance of traits respondents found attractive in potential partners. The research, which featured more than 7000 Australian online dating participants aged between 16 and 65, found that as people of both sexes age, they place more importance on openness and trust. “Interestingly, those in the older age range placed less emphasis on attractiveness and rated personality much higher than their younger counterparts,” says Michelle Begy, MD and founder of relationship coaching firm Ignite Dating.
She adds: “Life experience is such an asset, as previous relationships and dating experiences can help you gain a better picture of what you want and don’t want: this is so important when it comes to meeting somebody new, because you can become a better judge of character when you truly understand what you are looking for in a partner.”
Greater contentment
Age 80-plus
The younger you are, the more you might think that the best days of your life are yet to come. That sense of living for the future can result in a greater sense of unease in the present. While the art of being fully present is not restricted by age, “The focus on the present moment comes through in an elder’s embrace of a cup of tea in hand or appreciation of a lovely garden view. Seniors set an example of mindfulness,” says Jason Ward, psychotherapist and clinical supervisor at Nightingale Hospital, London.
Our capacity to feel joy and contentment doesn’t peak until the age of 82, according to data from the World Health Organisation. Photo / Getty Images
A 2020 study from Flinders University suggested that mindfulness may naturally develop with time and life experience. The survey showed that increased present-moment awareness and adopting a non-judgmental attitude are all positively associated with age. Furthermore, the relationship between these characteristics and wellbeing becomes stronger with age. Researchers note that these effects tend to start around the age of 40.
A greater sense of happiness might be one of the things to look forward to. Leading neuroscientist Daniel Levitin says that older generations are much more cheerful than younger ones, citing World Health Organisation data from 60 countries showing that our capacity to feel joy and contentment doesn’t peak until the age of 82.
‘I can outrun my teenage daughter’
Sabrina Pace-Humphreys, 45, trail runner, activist and author
Last year Sabrina Pace-Humphreys won her first ultramarathon at the age of 44; 100km around the Isle of Wight.
“I’ve never held a cup for winning anything in my life,” says the activist and author of Black Sheep: A Story of Rural Racism, Identity and Hope.
However, she believes that her life experience has given her the resilience and skillset to be able to run long distances. “Everything I’ve been through in my life, from the racism through to the stereotyping of being a teenage mum, to addiction and recovery, because of all that I have what Liam Neeson’s character in the film Taken calls “a very particular set of skills”. And all of those skills come from experiences that I wouldn’t want anyone else to endure to be able to dig deep like I can. But they have allowed me to do that.”
She only started running in her 30s, after having her fourth child. Diagnosing her with post-natal depression, her GP suggested she try getting outside.
Running can be hard to start with, but it has huge benefits. Photo / Getty Images
“I used to look at runners and think, ‘Why would you put yourself through that?’ They looked like they were in so much pain.”
It was hard to start with. Her body had no experience of running. Then in 2016 she discovered trail running. “It felt physically suited to my body and allowed me to move it in a way that felt so much more pleasurable.
“You get to walk, you get to fast-hike and you get to run. All those elements work for me and my body as I’m getting older.”
Part of what makes her good though is the ability and wisdom to listen to her body and its needs. “I don’t just smash myself in a race. I have to be present and listen to the niggles. I think that lesson comes with age.”
Her longest race to date is the 430km Spine Race along the Pennine Way. “I could do it because I put time into everything that goes around running, such as strength and conditioning. The importance of protein in my diet. All of that matters because I want to keep running until I’m older.”
She loves the fact that she can outrun her own teenage daughter. “I feel like I’m at my physical peak. The science is showing that women can actually start to outrun the men as we age. It gives me even more of a resilient mindset when I settle into challenging myself.”
