Different areas of the brain are activated in some older adults when solving abstract problems.
Posted 2024.02.11 22:05 Posted 2024.02.11 22:05 Edited 2024.02.11 21:09 Views 1 When fluid intelligence function declines, other areas of the brain have been shown to compensate for the deficient function. [사진=게티이미지뱅크]
Brain deficits occur as we age, but new research has shown that in healthy older adults, other brain regions can be activated to take on the missing roles. This is what the health and medical webzine “Health Day” reported last week based on an article by British researchers published in eLife.
Human intelligence is divided into fluid intelligence, which is innate and genetic, and crystallized intelligence, which is influenced by education and environment. Fluid intelligence gradually declines with age.
“One of the things that fluid intelligence represents is the ability to solve abstract problems,” said Kamen Tsvetanov, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge in England. “As we age, this ability decreases significantly.” “Some people are better at maintaining this ability and we don’t know why,” he said. “I thought it might be the result of mobilizing other areas of the brain to overcome the decline in brain function.”
To confirm this, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Sussex acquired and analyzed images of the brains of 223 adults aged between 19 and 87. Before undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which monitors cerebral blood flow in real time, participants were asked to solve various types of puzzles. Of course, the older you get, the more difficult it becomes to solve the puzzles.
Previous research has shown that fluid intelligence is based on a neural network called “Multiple Demand Network (MDN)”. MDN is a general term for a neural network that connects the frontal and occipital lobes of the brain.
In the fMRI images it was observed that the MDN of the participants’ brains was activated. At the same time, in some older participants, activation of two other brain regions was observed. One was the wedge, located in the center of the occipital lobe, and the other was a region of the prefrontal cortex.
Of the two regions, only activation of the cuneiform lobe appeared to help people solve real-world puzzles better, the researchers found. The cuneiform lobe is known to be the neurological center of visual focusing, but it was not known why the brain sought additional help from the cuneiform lobe. Researchers hypothesized that when visual memory declines due to aging, Seol Sang-yeop becomes a relief pitcher to put the puzzle pieces together.
The researchers defined “compensation” as the process by which other areas of the brain compensate for the lack of functionality when the function of fluid intelligence declines. Professor Alexa Morcom, a cognitive neurologist at the University of Sussex and a member of the research team, said that overall the study “suggests that compensation in later life does not depend on the MDN, as previously hypothesized, but instead recruits regions whose function is preserved in aging.” She “she said.
Ethan Knight, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, pointed out that “this type of compensatory activity does not occur in all older people.” He said: “If we find out why this happens to some older people and whether there are differences in education or lifestyle, other people will be able to receive similar benefits.”
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