We have always known that fine wine improves with age.

Now there is hard evidence to show that we do as well. The older we get, the better our thinking becomes.

This is due to ‘bilateralisation’. This means we increasingly use the two sides of our brain to think.

PET scans have shown that compared to younger brains, the middle aged brain not only uses more of itself to solve a problem, but also does better at solving the problem.

The middle aged brain accesses the powerful Frontal Cortex more that the younger brain does. As we go through life, our brains become more and more connected, making it easier for us to access it all. The younger brain appears to rely more on one side of the brain or the other. The middle aged brain uses the lot.

There is a potential downside to this ‘better thinking’. The middle aged brain is not so good at multi-tasking as the younger brain. There is also a lot of evidence to say the younger brain is not much good at it also. Picture the teenager trying to send a text message whilst driving!’

Roberto Cabeza, from Duke University, in his 2002 study “Aging Gracefully’, came up with the term ‘HAROLD’, or Hemisphere Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults. HAROLD shows that the older we get the more able we are to recruit as much brain power as we need.

The brain seems to spend a lot of its time building a better brain which you can access during middle age.

This could also explain why, for many people, middle age is the most creative time of their lives. As we age, the brain becomes more intertwined, letting us see bigger patterns and have bigger thoughts. Our thinking might get slower but it gets richer and more creative.

As our brains become more densely wired, they become less rigidly bifurcated. We end up being able to access the natural powers of both hemispheres resulting in the neural integration of our thoughts and feelings. We move towards being more Whole Brained.

As one neuroscientist said, “Wisdom is learning how to use the brain in different ways”.

Reference: Secrets of the Grown-Up Brain by Barbara Strauch

“I’m having a mid-life crisis. I am loosing my youth and have nothing to look forward to but the downhill slide to old age. I need to do something to cheer me up. I need a new car (or boat, partner, house etc).”

Sound familiar? I am sure you have heard someone say this sort of thing. There are also many books that explain when and how your crisis will happen and what to do when it does.

Well, this is a bad news / good news story.

The bad news is that you will have to find another excuse for buying that car. There is no such thing as the ‘mid life crisis’.

The good news is that, from a brain perspective, you just keep getting better.

Harvard’s Ronald Kessler, a director of the middle-age survey says, “The data show that middle age is the very best time of life.”

Another study at Perdue University showed that life satisfaction actually peaked at age sixty-five.

One explanation of this is the brain’s plasticity; this is its ability to learn new things and to re-wire itself. This happens all the way through our lives. There is ample evidence showing how the brain reorganises itself and continues to develop.

There are the now famous studies of London taxi drivers and expert violin players and how the areas of the brain associated with spatial reasoning (taxi Drivers) and fingering strings (violin players) grew larger the more they drove and played.

The mid-life crisis is a trick played on you by culture and society with no real reason behind it. By choosing you use your whole brain, to expand your world and create new and exciting mental pathways you can continue to grow and enjoy life – crisis free.

The only downside of all of this is that you will have to find another reason for buying that car. But there again, your brain will be working so well, that will be easy!

Taken from Barbara Strauch’s book, Secrets of a Grown-Up Brain.