Feeling younger than your age could be a sign that your brain is healthy

The brains are the most complicated organ of our body. While neuroscientists are pretty sure of what some brain hemispheres are responsible for, others remain a mystery, as to why some people develop Alzheimer 's disease.

There is also a lot of false information about brains. But what is certain is that keeping your brain young and healthy is vital – and some exercises have been proven to ward off the effects of aging rather well.

According to a new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, there could be another secret to keeping your brain young, and all of this has to do with your state of mind.

Jeanyung Chey of the Seoul National University in Korea wanted to study the connection between subjective and real brain age. She and a team recruited 68 healthy people aged 59 to 84 and performed MRI scans to analyze the amount of gray matter in different regions.

Participants also completed a questionnaire about their age and whether they felt older or younger, and their cognitive abilities and their health perceived were also evaluated.

People who said they were feeling younger than their age were more likely to score better on a memory test. In addition, they seemed to consider themselves to be in better health, and were less likely to be depressed. This was not only performance, as those who felt younger had also increased the volume of gray matter in the inferior frontal gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus associated with language, speech, and sound.

If someone feels older than his or her age, it could mean that he or she is assessing his or her lifestyle.

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

Researchers do not know for sure whether younger brain characteristics are responsible for someone's subjective age or not, but they think that those who feel older may be more aware of the process aging of their brain.

Another possible explanation is that people who feel younger engage in more physical and mental activity, and lead a generally more stimulating life, which improves the health of their brains. Those who feel older may have resigned themselves to their age and have stopped being so nimble and frisky, which has an impact on their cognitive abilities. "If someone feels older than his age, this could be a sign for him to evaluate his lifestyle, his habits and his activities that could contribute to brain aging and take steps to better take care of his brain health ".