Brains work best at age of 39
Our brains work best when we are 39-years-old, say scientists ... after that it is all downhill.
Boffins have found that from the age of 40 onwards signals in the brain begin to slow down.
The experts from the University of California, Los Angeles, say this is because we loose a fatty skin that coats the nerve cells and acts as insulation for fast bursts brain signals.
But after 40 this deteriorates and our bodies do not repair the protective sheaths meaning signals passing along the neurons in the brain slow down, along with our reaction times.
The scientists tested this by measuring how quickly a sample of men could tap their index fingers ... apparently in Los Angele this is a measure of how well your brain works.
The quicker the men were able to tap, the greater the scientists say is the frequency of electrical discharges in the brain.
Dr George Bartzokis, of the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, said: "Studies have shown us that as we age, myelin breakdown and repair are continually occurring over the brain's entire neural network.
"But in older age, we begin losing the repair battle. That means the average performance of the networks gradually declines with age at an accelerating rate."
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