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Will I lose my memory when I get old?
Your brain is shrinking!!! Well, if you’re over 30 it is. After that, on average, you lose a bit less than 0.5% of your brain volume every year. Reach 90, and you may have lost over a third of your hippocampus, the seahorse-shaped bit of the brain vital for making memories.
AND you’ll have said goodbye to 14% of your cerebral cortex – the grey matter responsible for useful things like thinking, emotions and speech. Worse still, scientists used to believe the adult brain was fixed and unable to change – like concrete – so losing some was a serious matter.
In 2000, researchers began to investigate a group of London taxi and bus drivers. The bus drivers trained for 6 weeks, and then drove the same routes every day. Whereas the taxi drivers had trained for up to 4 years, memorising some 25,000 streets. The researchers took MRI scans of both Bus and taxi drivers, but it was the cabbies’ brain that showed something incredible. Their brains contained far more grey matter in the back part of the hippocampus than the bus drivers.
Here’s what scientists think was going on: Inside our brains are trillions of synaptic connections - chemical and electrical impulses that transfer messages between the body and the brain – like millions of cabbies taking millions of patrons to different destinations.
In memorising and using their mental map of London, the cabbies’ brains adapted and changed, creating more synaptic connections. So, it turns out the brain isn’t like concrete – but more like putty, or plastic - able to adapt to our demands. Scientists call this adaptability ‘neuroplasticity’.This new discovery is great news, because while you might not be able to stop you brain shrinking, it seems you can compensate by building new connections – if you stay mentally active, challenging your brain like a London cabbie.
