Old People Can Produce As Many New Brain Cells As Teenagers (independent.co.uk)

Long-time Slashdot reader Futurepower(R) shares this article about a newly-published study which counters previous theories that neurons stop developing after adolescence: Healthy men and women continue to produce new neurons throughout life, suggesting older people remain more cognitively and emotionally intact than previously believed, researchers found. For decades it was thought that adult brains were hard-wired and unable to form new cells. But a Columbia University study found older people continued to produce neurons in the hippocampus -- a part of the brain important for memory, emotion and cognition -- at a similar rate to young people....

However, the researchers also noted fewer blood vessels and connections between cells in the older brains, which Ms Boldrini said "may be linked to compromised cognitive-emotional resilience" in the elderly.
The article suggests these newest findings may be hotly debated.

"They come just a month after a University of California study suggested adults do not develop new neurons."

Comments

We can

[PPH]

Just don't want to.

Not at all a surprise

[LynnwoodRooster]

Of course we can produce new brain cells. We just forget where we placed them... Now get off my lawn!

My brain is so big now . . .

[reboot246]

It won't even fit inside my skull! I call the external part of my brain "the internet". Seriously, we all use the internet as an extension of our brains. There's no need memorizing so much stuff when you have nearly the whole knowledge and wisdom of the world at your fingertips.

I prefer to use my "internal storage" for personal memories. That's nearly 66 years of friends, family, parties, relationships, neighbors, holidays, and the like. I still do math problems in my head just to keep the CPU in shape. Emotionally I'm about the same as I was long ago; just a little bit slower to anger, but that's all.

So, like maybe three or so?

[Krishnoid]

I mean, how many old people do you know that can still produce teenagers? Unless they already have them chained up in their basement or something.

Re:Well no wonder

[Archtech]

Old people brains show signs of "compromised cognitive-emotional resilience", or as it's otherwise known "becoming immune to the world".

No doubt because they have learned enough about the world to understand how terrifying and irrational it can be.