Older But Mellower: Aging Brain Shifts Gears To Emotional Advantage

Science News ^ | 6-25-2006 | Bruce Bower

[muawiyah]

The Hindus always said that you will understand your father when you reach 50 years of age.

[Cinnamon]

that explains the Murthawi effect

[stboz]

Mark Twain said "When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I could scarcely stand to be around him. But, by the time I was 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in the past 4 years."

[Man50D]

But, instead, the over-50 crowd handles life's rotten realities and finds life's bright side more effectively than whippersnappers do. In no small part, that's because the aging brain makes critical emotional adjustments, a new study indicates.
Maybe it's due to the fact the over fifty crowd realizes aging heart can't handle the stress!

[mewzilla]

But, instead, the over-50 crowd handles life's rotten realities and finds life's bright side more effectively than whippersnappers do.

Jeepers, not the ones we know...

[bannie]

That's why it's not FUN to ride on freaky roller coasters any longer. However, I am happier than I used to be.

[Man50D]

Mark Twain said "When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I could scarcely stand to be around him. But, by the time I was 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in the past 4 years."

My personal experience with my parents led me to understand the change is more profound than Mark Twain describes. My parents knew everything when I was a child. I was amazed when I entered my early teens how much intelligence my parents had lost! It was embarrassing. Fortunately for them I knew everything. Imagine my relief when they regained all their knowledge by the time I was in my early twenties.

[bannie]

OOPS! I should have read it first! my bad.

[Carolinamom]

They used to call it wisdom.

[stands2reason]

It explains how grandparents can overlook their grandchildren's faults.

[sneakers]

I think you just nailed it.

So they just discovered this? This isn't anything that past generations didn't already know!

[VanShuyten]

This gradual reorganization of the brain's emotion system may result from older folk responding to accumulating personal experiences by increasingly looking for meaning in life, the researchers propose in the June 14 Journal of Neuroscience.

The Meaning of Life

The Galaxy Song

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough...

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way".

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

(Animated calliope interlude)

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

[bannie]

It explains how grandparents can overlook their grandchildren's faults.

I assume that you know that grandchildren actually have no faults...? (53)

[stands2reason]

Some of that wisdom includes "don't stress the small stuff."

A healthy individual with no mental problems eventually discovers wallowing in pessimism is no way to waste your life.

[FixitGuy]

Gee whiz. And I thought that old folks just realized that no matter what they do, their kids will survive or not, having little to do with all their parents "help and good advice".

At least mine don't seem to care about all "my hard earned wisdom".

No flambe, pulease.

[Dawggie]

Seems the deomonrats wallow in pessimism all the time. May I extrapolate that libs are a immature cry babbies?

[Oldhunk]

"It explains how grandparents can overlook their grandchildren's faults"

Why would I need to overlook my grandchildrens' faults? Mine are perfect.

[whd23]

"So, can we have your liver, then?"

[Graymatter]

We worry less about some things because we've learned they don't happen. (The argument with the spouse is not going to destroy the relationship.) We worry more about other things because we've learned what can happen. (Stay off roller coasters.)