Personality May Influence Brain Shrinkage in Aging

Personality May Influence Brain Shrinkage in Aging

www.physorg.com

Psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis have found an intriguing possibility that personality and brain aging during the golden years may be linked.

Studying MRI images of 79 volunteers between the ages of 44 and 88 — who also had provided personality and demographic data — the researchers found lower volumes of gray matter in the frontal and medial temporal brain regions of volunteers who ranked high in neuroticism traits, compared with higher volumes of gray matter in those who ranked high in conscientious traits

(visit the link for the full news article)

Denise Head, PhD, assistant professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University. “Our data clearly show an association between personality and brain volume, particularly in brain regions associated with emotional and social processing. This could be interpreted that personality may influence the rate of brain aging.”

The researchers claim to have discovered that neuroticism is associated with a greater decline in brain volume as the individual ages

The study relates to Alzheimer's, also

Is neuroticism linked to anxiety linked to paranoia linked to conspiracy theories ?

Well, the researchers claim that anxiety or chronic stress *IS* associated with 'deleterious affects on the brain '

Going for a walk, smelling the flowers, waving 'hi' to a neighbour might be a good investment in future mental health

After all, no point having a 75 year-old toned and healthy body, if the brain left for lunch 15 years earlier -- burned out by worry



www.physorg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Dock9


Just brain shrinkage eh?
No word on the other thing?
Sigh!

Fine I'll go for more walks if it'll help ... but I ain't swimming.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


LOL

Will see if I can find evidence that The Other Thing increases in size in direct proportion to shrinking of brain-volume

although .... it might mean you'll have the tool ... but won't remember the task