Human Brain Fine-Tunes Itself Throughout Your Life, Changing with Age

It turns out that your brain fine-tunes itself throughout your life. The communication pathways of your brain, known as white matter microstructure, develop as you age. These pathways have now been studied to determine age-related differences in cognitive ability, specifically those of children and adults.

Most prior studies that focused on white matter microstructure did not concern individuals from the entire life span or evaluate a specific section of white matter tracts. This particular study was conducted by the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, New York. Dr. Bart Peters and his colleagues sought to investigate the relationship between age and neurocognitive performance to nine white matter tracts from childhood to adulthood.

Peters and his colleagues acquired 296 participants ranging from eight to 68 years of age. They underwent tests that measured their cognitive functioning: speed, attention, memory and learning. Additionally, they received a non-invasive imaging scan that allowed the researchers to create maps of the nine major white tracts that they were investigating.

This combination of data helped the researchers identify differences in neurocognitive correlates of the white tract matter from childhood into early adulthood. The findings were published in Biological Psychiatry.

They found that differences in fractional anisotropy (a measure of connectivity) of the cingulum (white matter fibers) were associated with executive functioning. One the other hand, fractional anisotrophy of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (responsible for semantic processing) was associated with visual learning and global cognitive performance via speed of processing.

"Our study identified key brain circuits that develop during adolescence and young adulthood that are associated with the growth of learning, memory and planning abilities," said Dr. Bart Peters in this EurekAlert! article. "These findings suggest that young people may not have full capacity of these functions until these connections have completed their normal trajectory of maturation beyond adolescence."

Studies such as this one may provide more insight for people who are diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Such disorders contribute to neurocognitive dysfunction, which is believed to have an effect on circuits and pathways that are relative to proper brain development.

Take a look at this EurekAlert! article to read more about this study and those that were involved.