Sort Your Brain Out: Boost Your Performance, Manage Stress and Achieve More

Hold On to Your Marbles

Over the hill

As far as the structure of your grey matter is concerned, once you're past your mid-twenties, it's downhill all the way. Your brain actually begins to shrink. But that doesn't mean that brain function peaks in its mid-twenties. In many regards several cognitive abilities actually become more efficient as you age, despite the structural degradation. In this regard, a better system of wiring is more important than having more wires.

Throughout middle age and beyond, the branching antennae (dendrites) that pick up signals from other neuronal brain wires progressively retract and lose the spiny tendrils that are studded with synaptic connections. The exception to this rule being the neural pathways involved in ...