(HealthDay News) -- Baby boomers, take comfort: A new study among older would-be jugglers suggests the aging mind doesn't lose the ability to learn new skills.
The finding is based on an analysis of brain scans taken while people aged 50 and up learned the art of juggling. Although they typically picked up the skill less readily than young people did, older folks who did succeed as jugglers displayed brain changes similar to those seen in much younger brains.
"This study demonstrates that we're not just completely shriveling up as we age," noted Paul Sanberg, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa. "Old brains can continue to be plastic and make changes. And clearly, the learning of new tasks clearly is not exclusively in the realm of young people."
Sanberg was not involved in the research, which was conducted by German scientists and published in the July 9 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/alzheimers-disease/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100210805>1=31003
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