Your Aging Brain: What’s Normal, What’s Not

Memory Special Report

 

Knowing how the normal brain ages — and how those changes affect your memory — can make the occasional senior moment less worrisome.  Here’s a timetable of normal brain aging by decade, starting in your twenties.

We tend to think of our brain as different from our other organs. But the brain undergoes predictable changes over time, just like the heart. As with heart disease, good genes and a healthy lifestyle can moderate these age-related changes, but it can’t entirely stop them.

Contrary to popular belief, brain neurons (nerve cells) do not undergo a massive die-off with age. Evidence now suggests that some neurons are indeed lost, but the brain continues to grow new ones, albeit at a slower pace. What does happen is that nerve cells in the brain begin to shrink. As a result, the connections between neurons (synapses) begin to deteriorate over time, and chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) become less available to carry information.