Communication between different regions of the brain is slower as people get older, a new research published in the Neuron has shown.

Researchers believe that this thing happens even in the absence of serious condition linked to mental decline, such as Alzheimer’s disease. The deterioration of the brain, like the deterioration of the body is linked to getting older, researchers concluded.

Previous study has discovered that bundles of axons (tubular projections sent out by neurons to signal other nerve cells) flag over time. These conduits, also named white matter, help different regions of the brain to connect and process the received information. According to the new research, these white matter pathways erode as times pass by, weakening communication or “cross talk” between different parts of the brain.

Co-author of the study Jessica Andrews-Hanna, a Harvard University graduate student, together with other Harvard researchers and collaborators at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Washington University in St. Louis concluded that white matter naturally degrades as we age. This leads to disrupted communication between brains region and memory deficits.

"This research helps us to understand how and why our minds change as we get older, and why some individuals remain sharp into their 90s, while others' mental abilities decline as they age,” Andrews-Hanna said.

The researchers was based on analyzing the brains of 93 healthy volunteers, aged between 18 and 93 divided in two groups : one 18 to 34 and the other 60 to 93 years of age.

Subjects were given several cognitive and memory exercises and while they were answering, researchers monitored activity in the fronts and backs of their brain with functional imaging magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). They wanted to observe if those areas were operating in harmony. Researchers concluded that communication between brain regions seemed to have “dramatically decline” in the older group.

“Our study now shows that cognitive decline in ageing may be linked to disruption of communication between different regions of the brain. We may have caught the failure of communication in the act,” said Professor Randy Buckner, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

There were also older people whose brains remained in sync and were more likely to perform better in a battery of tests of mental capacity.

The doctors believe that this research had paved the way to a better understanding of cognitive degeneration and may help research in heart disease.

“Understanding why we lose cognitive function as we age may help us to prolong our mental abilities later in life.
Understanding how the brain changes as people age is an important part of the fight to protect against cognitive diseases such as dementia,” Buckner said.

He also said that the team plans to examine the effect of aging on neurotransmitters and gray matter too.

"We want to know is this an important factor in why some people age gracefully and others age less gracefully?" he added.

Professor Clive Ballard, of the Alzheimer’s Society said that more study is needed to confirm and clarify the findings.

"Further work is needed to establish if the pattern of change is related to age only, or to vascular changes in the brain."