• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Human Brains Are Getting Bigger – Could This Impact Our Health?

March 28, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

The size of the human brain has been increasing each decade since at least the 1930s, new research has revealed. According to the study authors, this cerebral growth is likely to be the result of improved early life environmental factors and may act as a buffer against the threat of dementia as we age.

Researchers looked at the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of 3,226 people who were taking part in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS). Launched way back in 1948 in Framingham, Massachusetts, the FHS features participants born in every decade since the 1930s and now includes the children and grandchildren of some of the original cohort.

Advertisement

When reviewing the scans – which were conducted between 1999 and 2019 – the study authors sought to compare the brains of people born in the 30s with those born in the 1970s. In doing so, they found that average brain volumes have increased from 1,234 milliliters to 1,321 milliliters over this 40-year period,  representing an expansion of around 6.6 percent.

Astonishingly, the surface area of participants’ brains displayed an even greater increase: the average cortical surface area of those born in the 1970s was almost 15 percent larger than that of those who entered the world four decades earlier, rising from 2,056 to 2,104 square centimeters (319 to 326 square inches).

Commenting on these findings in a statement, study author Charles DeCarli said that “the decade someone is born appears to impact brain size and potentially long-term brain health.” Seeking to explain these differences, the researcher said that “genetics plays a major role in determining brain size, but our findings indicate external influences — such as health, social, cultural and educational factors — may also play a role.”

Exactly what impact our expanding encephalons will have on our long-term wellbeing remains to be seen, although the researchers note that adult brain volume is “an important predictor of cognition in old age.” Based on these observations, the study authors “hypothesize that larger brain volumes indicate larger brain development and potentially greater “brain reserve” that could explain the declining incidence of dementia”. 

Advertisement

Indeed, despite the fact the number of people with Alzheimer’s continues to rise in the US, the overall percentage of the population suffering from age-related neurological disorders has been falling for several decades.

Importantly, the study also revealed that the size of the hippocampus – which is strongly associated with learning and memory – appears to be increasing decade-by-decade, along with white and gray matter volumes within the brain. Putting these findings into context, DeCarli explained that “larger brain structures like those observed in our study may reflect improved brain development and improved brain health.” 

“A larger brain structure represents a larger brain reserve and may buffer the late-life effects of age-related brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and related dementias,” said the researcher.

The study is published in the journal JAMA Neurology.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. China’s Aug export growth unexpectedly picks up speed, imports solidly up
  2. Bolivian president calls for global debt relief for poor countries
  3. Soccer-Barca boss Koeman grateful for vote of confidence
  4. The Dark Reason Why You Never See Narwhals In An Aquarium

Source Link: Human Brains Are Getting Bigger – Could This Impact Our Health?

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • DNA From Greenland Sled Dogs – Maybe The World’s Oldest Breed – Reveals 1,000 Years Of Arctic History
  • Why Doesn’t Moonrise Shift By The Same Amount Each Night?
  • Moa De-Extinction, Fashionable Chimps, And Robot Surgery – No Human Required
  • “Human”: Powerful New Images Mark The Most Scientifically Accurate “Hyper-Real 3D Models Of Human Species Ever”
  • Did We Accidentally Leave Life On The Moon In 2019 – And Could We Revive It?
  • 1.8 Million Years Ago, Two Extinct Humans Had One Of The Gnarliest Deaths In History
  • “Powerful Image” Of One Of The World’s Rarest Tigers Exposes The Real Danger In Taman Negara
  • Evolution, Domestication, And A Lot Of Very Good Boys: How Wolves Became Dogs
  • Why Do Orcas Have White Spots Near Their Eyes?
  • Tomb Of First King Of Ancient Maya City Discovered In Belize
  • The Real Reason The Tip Of Your Tape Measure Wiggles Like That
  • The “Haunting” Last Message From NASA’s Opportunity Rover, Sent From Inside A Planet-Wide Storm
  • Adorable Video Proves Not All Gorillas Hate The Rain. It Might Even Win One A Mate
  • 5,000-Year-Old Rock Art May Show One Of Ancient Egypt’s First Rulers
  • Alzheimer’s-Linked Protein Levels “20 Times Higher” In Newborn Babies – What Does This Mean?
  • Americans Were Asked If They Thought Civil War Was Coming. The Results Were Unexpected
  • Voyager 1 & 2 Could Be Detected From Almost A Light-Year Away With Our Current Technology
  • Dams Have Nudged Earth’s Poles By Over 1 Meter In The Past 200 Years
  • This Sugar Could Be A Cure For Male Pattern Baldness – And It’s Been In Our Bodies All Along
  • “Cosmic Immigrants”: Daytime Star Seen In 1604 May Be An “Alien Type Ia Supernova”
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version