The Brain Speed TestThe graph shows that auditory speed of processing declines with age. But it also shows clearly the immense variability beyond 40 years of age and particularly the 70-90 year old group!!
How do some older people manage to maintain such a spry auditory cortex? Some of these brains are functioning as well as the 20 and 30 year-olds. Pity I didn’t take this test before I started. My result was 31ms, which means I can hear adequately in noisy environments.
“The brain is a learning machine, and like all machines it needs to be continually maintained,” says Michael Merzenich, a professor emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco. “If you stop exercising the brain — and this is what often happens during retirement — then you shouldn’t be surprised when it starts to die off.”
