其实人是越老越聪明

　　Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we retain them, and even generate new ones well into middle age. For years it's been assumed that the brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.

　　而且，随着年龄增大，我们并不会损失脑细胞，相反，我们会保留它们甚至在中年阶段产生出新的脑细胞。数年来人们以为大脑和身体一样会随着年龄退化。然而一项关于年龄和功能的规模最大时间也最长的研究表明，事实并不是这样。

　　This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that, on average, participants performed better on cognitive tests in their late 40s and 50s than they had in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, spatial orientation skills (imagining what an object would look like if it were rotated 180 degrees), verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving.

　　该研究自1956年起跟踪调查了6000名受试者，每隔七年对他们进行一次测试。结果发现，在认知测试中的表现方面，平均而言受试者在40岁末以及50岁末比他们在20多岁时表现要好。具体来说，年长者在这几方面表现更好：词汇量测试、空间方向技能（将物体旋转180度，看该物体像什么），词汇记忆（能记住多少个单词）以及问题解决能力。