Language skills stay strong in older adults, even while other cognitive abilities decline

MIT News reports on a new brain imaging study from MIT and Boston University that finds language skills remain strong in older adults, even as other cognitive abilities decline. The researchers compared brain activity in younger and older adults and found that the language processing network looked nearly identical across age groups, while the executive control network showed clear signs of decline. The findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that specialized brain networks may be more resilient to aging than the brain's more flexible, general-purpose network.

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