That Neuroscience Guy - Neuroscience Bite -Feeling Young or Old

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

You're only as old as you feel. In today's Neuroscience Bite, we discuss the brain benefits of feeling younger than you are. 

Hi, my name is Olav Krigolsen and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy. Welcome to another Neuroscience Byte. This week I turned 52 and I have to admit, I don't feel that old. I feel like I'm still in my 30s. So I thought I'd look this up for fun and look at the research on the brain and the difference between your physical age and your mental age. And the research is fascinating and there's lots of it. In the short version, people that feel younger than they actually are have better brain health outcomes than people

that feel older than they actually are. So feeling younger than your physical age is good for your brain. Now, why is this? The research on this is actually mostly fairly recent, and researchers believe that one of the reasons that this is true is people that feel younger than their physical age release more neurotransmitters like dopamine and more hormones in the brain. And the release of these neurotransmitters and hormones has a positive impact on brain health. So in other words, feeling young is good for you and it's good for your brain. And in another study I found, which I thought was important to mention, is they were looking at the impact of feeling young relative to your level of maturity.

And they found there was actually no relationship. Just because you feel younger than you actually are doesn't mean you're going to be immature. And in fact, they found that you can feel older than you actually are and still be immature. And feeling young has other benefits. You have a lower risk of depression and you have greater mental well-being. And there's also impacts on physical health. You have a reduced risk for dementia if you feel younger than you actually are. And there's even less of a chance that you'll be hospitalized. And the converse is true. If you feel older than you actually are, you have an 18 to 25% chance of being hospitalized and dying more so than people that feel younger

than they actually are. So if your mental age is younger than your physical age, this is a good thing and it's good for your brain health. I hope you enjoyed this little neuroscience bite. My name is Olive Krigolson and I'm That Neuroscience Guy. Remember, please subscribe to the podcast. You can DM me ideas on Twitter at That Neuroscience Guy and check out the website, thatneuroscienceguy.com. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on Sunday for another episode of That Neuroscience Guy.