Is thinking doing more harm than good?
Most of what we've heard about getting old is how your brain starts to fail you, memories start to fade and you lose touch with who you were. Could it be that the more active your brain, the shorter your life span may be? Your first thought after reading that was most likely the same as mine, how can it be that having a more active brain could lead to a shorter life, wouldn't you want to use and exercise the brain as much as possible?
In the article by Jamie Ducharme she describes how this excessive neural activity in your brain is linked to a shorter lifespan. This is still preliminary, meaning it will still require far more research. With this study, the incorporation of new drugs to alter neural activity to help slow the effects of aging are also being considered. To preform this study they examined the brain tissues of deceased humans, grouped their age of death and found that the tissues of those who lived longer lives, dying at 90 or 100, had less neural activity than those who died at 70 or 80.
There could be many variables that also play key roles in this study that still need to be researched such as "as you get older your brain slows down" or something as simple as those who died younger may have died due to something unrelated to neural activity. It's hard to do research correlating to humans, not to mention human brains, but when the study was done on worms they proved that increased neural activity did lead to shorter lives. It was only when these worms were given a drug to decrease neural activity that their life spans had increased. There obviously has to be more research done into this topic, but it sure does get you thinking. Just make sure you don't think too hard!
Posted by: Joshua Gach (5)
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Very interesting article, I would like add that overall overthinking induces stress and raises blood pressure which in fact can impact your overall health resulting to a shorter life span. So this research is definitely on the right tract .
ReplyDelete-fredjah desmezeaux
That is a really great point Fredjah, I have read many other articles stating the same thing. I think you should look into how the way you think about stress can also determine how your health will be affected. Thanks for your comment, the feedback was appreciated!
Delete-Joshua Gach (5)
I feel that rather than an active brain controlling lifespan, it is rather the fast heart rate that is associated with high brain activity. This is because generally a heart will not be able to last as long if it constantly beating at a fast rate. There are likely many other factors such as genetics that play into lifespan. It is possible that high brain activity along with lifespan could be true but doing an experiment to display this could possibly be unethical, such as taking identical twins and exposing them to high and low pressure lifetimes.
ReplyDelete-Isaac Collibee
That's very true Isaac. A fast heart rate can lead to severe health problems. You are also right when you mention that there are many other factors that play a role in this as well. All though there isn't really a quick ethical way to go about this research and there is still way more research that needs to be done it is still an interesting topic. Thanks for your feedback, it was appreciated!
Delete^ Joshua Gach (5)
DeleteThis is an interesting article, and my first thoughts were the exact same as yours. I think that it is an interesting idea to put forward, but I am definitely not going to be too quick to jump on board. Something to consider would also be the type of brain activity going on. Different types of brain activity can have different effects on the rest of the body. If spend lots of time thinking about stressful things, you will spend a large amount of time stressed. Stress can lead to many bad effects on the body. Stress is linked to many things like high blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms, strokes, and heart attacks. It may not be the level of brain activity that can shorten lifespan, but the nature of the brain activity.
ReplyDeletePosted by John Mariano
This is very interesting topic and I definitely agree that this research is still preliminary because there could be so many factors that could play a role in the relationship between neural activity and life span. I'm curious as to how the researchers were able to measure neural activity. What method did the researchers used to measure? Additionally, did researchers look at neural activity of the brain as a whole or did they target specific regions within the brain?
ReplyDelete-Emily Wong
I find this to be a fascinating topic, and agree that further research is required before any solid claims can be made. However, this would make sense seeing as chronic stress (related to overthinking, anxiety, and depression) has the ability to induce neuroplastic changes in the prefrontal cortex, and decreased neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Overall, chronic stress can lead to a reduction in dendritic spines, allowing fewer synaptic connections to be made, compromising ones control over their emotions. I wonder if these changes act as a positive feedback mechanism that perpetuates chronic stress, leading to earlier neurodegeneration and thus a shorter lifespan. I also wonder if hyperactive neural activity causes an increased secretion of glutamate, and if glutamates neurotoxic properties could play a role in the reduced lifespan as well.
ReplyDeletePosted by Kayla Rosiello
First of all, I am very interested in reading about the experimental design of this study. I would have preferred your post with this information included. I haven't thought about this before, but the findings don't really surprise me based off of my personal experiences with my own mind. I've always described myself as an over thinker and I describe it as being a blessing and a curse. I think that because my brain is overactive it makes it a lot more stressful to merely exist, because you are dissecting everything around you in great detail. Basically what Kayla said above, I bet there's a correlation between thinking too much and stress.
ReplyDeletePosted by Lauren Mason
I agree that further research must be conducted to prove this but it is indeed a fascinating claim. My paranoia sometimes suggests that if I think too much I might get Alzheimers pretty early because the brain can only be used so much, so some concrete research could bring me some relief. Thinking too much might not exactly be the cause of a shorter life span but stress might be since it depletes a lot of energy and it meddles with short term memory.
ReplyDeletePosted by King Wahib
It would be clever to see how other model organisms are affected by this drug to see if there are any correlations. I wonder if there would be similar effects seen within birds or frogs. Did this article mention what drug they used that enhanced the lifetime of the worms? It would also be interesting to know from the deceased humans what they had done for an occupation/to know how educated they were. I wonder if this would make a difference within the study.
ReplyDelete-Elise Babula