Brains Work Best At Age of 39

Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles are reporting that while some people may think "life begins at 40," all it seems to do is slow down. According to recent research, at age 39 our brain reaches its peak speed, and it's all downhill after that. "The loss of a fatty skin that coats the nerve cells, called neurons, during middle age causes the slowdown, experts say. The coating acts as insulation, similar to the plastic covering on an electrical cable, and allows for fast bursts of signals around the body and brain. When the sheath deteriorates, signals passing along the neurons in the brain slow down. This means reaction times in the body are slower too."

Comments

Relates to neurological disease as well

[Max Romantschuk]

Interestingly, AFAIK, myelin breakdown due to a malfunctioning immune system is very much related to diseases like MS and ALS, among others.

Which begs the question, if we could fix those disorders including restoring the myelin around the nerve fibers, could we keep people's brains working better for longer?

Re:Relates to neurological disease as well

[yttrstein]

We can, and the substances that have been shown to be effective on this have been around for quite a while, the most modern ones being things like phenylpiracetam and pramiracetam, whos alkaloids are a suitable replacement in myelin sheath generation in aging human brains.

I expect this to suddenly be "news" in about five years.

Re:Relates to neurological disease as well

[yttrstein]

First, I have to say, take the following with a grain of salt, since it's anecdotal:

Most of the research on the 'racetam family of bioactives has been done in Russia, and because of this there are both mistrusts and language barriers to overcome, but in doing so I discovered some pretty massively interesting studies all about specifically myelin sheath issues. So, since these substances are freely available in the US without any kind of prescription (unlike Russia, interestingly), I purchased a few and fed them to my mother, who is in the last couple of stages of post polio syndrome, which among other things (to put it in a nutshell) severely inhibits myelin effectiveness in nerve sheath maintenance. When she started the regimen a year ago, she couldn't walk at all and had great difficulty grasping things with her left hand, and was also in tremdous pain.

Just a week ago she and I walked about six blocks to a restaurant, and then back. She can grasp things in her left hand fairly well at this point, and is in very little pain.

I don't know myelin "helping" nootropics are the holy grail of neurological disorders, but they appear to have helped at least one person tremendously.

What about exercise?

[rrohbeck]

It is well known that regular intense exercise has a profound impact on aging and brain performance.
I can't take a report serious that doesn't take the effect of exercise into consideration and doesn't even mention it.
So does 39 apply to complete couch potatoes? Average Americans with little exercise? Athletes?

Re:...and they said....

[theaveng]

There is No "one" point where the body stops working. Different systems age at different rates:

- the reproductive system peaks somewhere around age 16 or 17 (lowest risk of birth defects)
- the *desire* for sex peaks just prior to menopause for women (circa age 35) and apparently never ends for men ;-)
- flexibility (ala gymanasts and skaters) peaks at 15 and ends around 25
- reaction time peaks at 30
- and now it's revealed that the human brain peaks just prior to 40 - after which the neurons' tendrils start falling apart (like an old rubber hose).

FRAUD ALERT -- Slashdot pseudo-science

[Futurepower(R)]

Fraud Alert: The results are wildly over-interpreted. The conclusions are guessing, not science.

Maybe older people don't take finger-tapping seriously. Maybe younger people are far more likely to have played computer games.

I met a man who was 55 who told me that he didn't get a good score on a computer pinball game he had just begun playing because he was old. Two weeks later, when I saw him again, he said his score had tripled.

Quote from the article linked by Slashdot: "Significantly, the research suggests that the myelin breakdown process should also reduce all other brain functions for which performance speed is dependent on higher AP frequencies, including memory; ..."

That's wild over-interpretation. There is no "should" in science. There is only theory, and it is necessary to emphasize that theories are only that, theories.