Those who feel younger than their age show less brain aging

They say you are only as old as you feel. Now, new research suggests that there may be some truth to the phrase, finding that those who feel younger than their age actually show fewer signs of cerebral aging.

Led by researchers from the Seoul National University in Korea, large-scale study looked at whether how old we feel – also called our subjective age – reflects the way our bodies age.

"Why do some people feel younger or older than their actual age?" asks Dr. Jeanyung Chey. "Some possibilities include depressive states, personality differences or physical health, but no one has studied brain aging processes as a possible reason for subjective age differences."

For research, the team recruited 68 healthy people aged 59 to 84 years. gave each person brain MRI scans to badess the amount of gray matter in various regions of the brain.

Participants were also asked to complete a survey badessing their cognitive abilities and perceptions of their overall health.

The results showed that participants who felt younger than their age were more likely to score better on a memory test, were healthier and less likely to report symptoms of depression

]. Feeled younger than their age also showed an increase in gray matter volume in key areas of the brain.

"We found that people who feel younger have the structural features of a younger brain," Chey said. "Importantly, this difference remains robust even when other possible factors, including personality, subjective health, depressive symptoms, or cognitive functions, are taken into account."

The study is the first to establish a link between subjective age and cerebral aging. The team hypothesizes that those who feel older can feel the aging process in their brains because their loss of gray matter can make cognitive tasks more difficult.

Another possibility is that those who feel younger might lead a more active life physically and mentally, which could improve brain health, while for those who feel older, the opposite might be true.

"If someone feels older than his or her age, this could be a sign to badess their lifestyle, their habits and their activities that could contribute to aging of the brain and take steps to better take care of the health of their brains, "said Chey.

The findings can be found published online in the journal Borders in Aging Neuroscience.