Expert birders have younger brains: How expertise may protect brain health
As we age, we experience changes in our cognitive skills, with processing speed and working memory declining gradually throughout adulthood. But could being expert in a hobby or field of study help to slow the rate of that decline? A new study, in expert birders, suggests that it might. The study found that in these experts, regions of the brain related to attention and perception remain more structurally compact than in nonexpert controls. Researchers suggest that hobbies involving perception, attention and memory could help preserve cognitive skills as we age.