Aging: Brain Boosts, From the Other Side
[New York Times - 19 November 2002] Elderly people who draw on both sides of the brain seem to do better at some mental tasks than those who use just one side, a new study in the journal NeuroImage reports. It supports a theory that as the brain ages, it may shift its workload so that some tasks once performed primarily by one side are shared more evenly by both. Older people best able to press both brain sides into service do better on skills tests compared with those less adept at using both sides, the study says.