Losing your wrinkles

The brain of a younger person looks like a complicated mass of wrinkled fat tissue.  As the brain ages the surface becomes smoother.  Ironically, we start to lose the wrinkles in our brains at around the age we start to notice the wrinkles in our skin.

What does this mean?  Nobody really knows yet - bear in mind, ninety five percent of what we know about the human brain has been learned in the last twenty five years.

You, possibly, view your own intelligence based upon IQ tests and educational results all done more than 25 years ago - at a time when we knew very little about the human brain and, possibly, even less about intelligence.

Intelligence used to be viewed as a single quantifiable quality on a Binet IQ scale dating from 1904.  Binet's scale had a fundamental impact upon educational development; the perception that "you can't teach old dogs new tricks" had a fundamental impact upon adult further education. 

An assumption was, and maybe often still is, that we were born with a certain level of intelligence and that brain cells die as we get older.  Modern research shows that more than 50% of "intelligence" is a function of education.  Your education, to a greater or lesser extent, was a function of your intelligence.  Ironically, to a greater or lesser extent, your intelligence is a function of your education.  More importantly, no matter how you view your intelligence, you can reasonably expect it to increase with increased education.

But what about education as we age, and creativity as we age?  In 2001 a study was set up involving 300 elderly subjects (median age 80)¹.  150 were given a structured creative arts educational program and the other 150 merely followed as a control group.  The results showed significantly better overall health, diminished use of medications, diminished vision problems and a general increase in "intelligence" for the ones receiving the additional education.  Modern studies are teaching us that there is no doubt that education can be regenerative.

And what about wisdom?  A German study² considered qualities such as insight, sound judgment, and problem solving.  Their findings were that older people consistently out-perform younger people on these values, values that could be considered as "wisdom".

We live in a culture that pays homage to youth.  But, as long as it is not debilitated by illness, there is no reason to believe that brain function decreases significantly with age, if properly used.  It has been found that the brain loses about 10% of its weight as we age, but that the average brain contains more neurons - much greater than 10% - than we can ever use. 

We're gaining facial wrinkles as we age, but we're also losing brain wrinkles.  Who knows, maybe this is a good thing.  Certainly aging studies are teaching us that, if we use our brains correctly, we can become not only older but wiser, more creative, and - yes - even more intelligent.  I need to finish this article now, it's time for my creative arts class.

(References:  1. “Creativity and Aging Study: The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on Older Adults” by Gene Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Center on Aging Health and Humanities, George Washington University  2.  Max Planck Institute, Berlin, Dr. Paul Baltes, "Psychological Aspects of Growing Old".