You certainly have a better developed and normally functioning brain, if you feel younger than the years you have, and this is presented in a recent and comprehensive study that highlights the correlation between the psychological age and the normal functioning of the healthy brain.
Numerous are the health benefits that people feel just because of this feeling as younger persons of their real age. This fact has been proven by a group of scientists who have conducted a new study that helps us understand why adults often say ‘you’re just as old as you feel.’
According to some research done in the past, the psychological or subjective age may be an indicator that predicts the health status later in life. Otherwise, for clarification, the age when an individual feels younger than his real age is called a subjective or psychological age.
Famous Doctor Jean Young Chevy from the University of Seoul asks an issue that leads to thinking, “Why do some people feel younger or older than their real age?” This relates to the still unclear connection of the neurobiological process of aging and the psychological age of a person.
Additionally, he replies: “Some possibilities include depressive states, personality differences or physical health. However, no one had investigated brain aging processes as a possible reason for differences in subjective age.”
To determine how older adults are feeling in this new study, a survey was conducted that determines the psychological age, and also magnetic resonance imaging was performed in sixty-eight adults who were in good health.
The authors of this comprehensive study have created a model that predicts the aging process using an open-type database. “We utilized both voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and age-prediction modeling techniques to explore whether the three groups of SA (i.e., feels younger, same, or older than actual age) differed in their regional gray matter (GM) volumes, and predicted brain age.”
Noteworthy is the better and healthier functions of the brain in the examinees who felt younger
The predicted younger age of the brain in people who reported to be younger than their real age is proven, and in the results of this study in the superior temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, a larger GM volume was observed.
In this research, all scientists agree that ‘subjective experience of aging is closely related to the process of brain aging and underscores the neurobiological mechanisms of SA as an important marker of late-life neurocognitive health.’
Dr. Chey further explains: “We found that people who feel younger have the structural characteristics of a younger brain.” Clarifies: “Importantly, this difference remains robust even when other possible factors, including personality, subjective health, depressive symptoms, or cognitive functions, are accounted for.”
We should try to behave like younger people, not according to our age
According to scientists, people who act as if they are younger than their real age, have a greater desire to activate themselves in physical or mental activities, and to make changes for the better, unlike their boring everyday life, thus improving the health condition of their brain.
This study, despite its success, failed to prove the way psychological age works, but it still succeeded in establishing the correlation between the aging of the brain and the psychological age among all other studies.
The brain can undergo faster aging and depletion of brain functions if you feel older than you really are, meaning the opposite process from the previously explained. Doctor Chey clarifies: “If somebody feels older than their age, it could be a sign for them to evaluate their lifestyle, habits, and activities that could contribute to brain aging and take measures to better care for their brain health.”
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