Aging Intelligently
Human intelligence is highly variable among people, but only somewhat variable across a person’s lifespan. New research points to genes as the keys to maintaining intelligence as we age.The study, published in Nature, analyzed the genes of nearly 2000 people to assess their intelligence in childhood and old age. The participants, all part of the Lothian Birth Cohorts, took general intelligence tests at age 11 and again at age 65, 70, or 79. The researchers simultaneously analyzed genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms in the individuals. Overall, genes accounted for 24% of the change in intelligence that occurred across a single person’s lifespan.
Intelligence – Are You Holding Back Your Brain?
Is intelligence fluid or crystalline? Is it a function of nature or nurture? Are you born smart, or is the power of your brain under no one's control but your own?You might have cruised through classes at school, or you might have struggled and wondered how your peers managed to pass their classes so effortlessly. In the first case, perhaps you met your match at university when you found you were no longer at the top of the class. In the second, perhaps you had just spent your life assuming some people were born smarter than others. In both cases you are treating intelligence as if it were a static trait -- you're born with a fixed quantity of it, and that quantity never changes.
A Nicotine Patch a Day Keeps the Cognitive Impairment Away
Normally, a nicotine patch on someone’s arm is evidence that they are trying to quit smoking. But, soon, nicotine patches may be appearing on arms of the cognitively impaired.A study published in the journal Neurology reported that transdermal nicotine administration improved the symptoms of cognitive impairment in nonsmoking adults. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 74 nonsmoking adults with mild cognitive impairment received either 15 mg of nicotine or placebo daily for 6 months. (Most smoking cessation patches deliver between 7 and 21 mg of nicotine per day.) At the end of the study period, the subjects showed significant improvement in most measures of cognitive function, including attention, memory, and psychomotor speed.
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