A study led by a team of scientists at the University of California Davis Health has found that human brains have been growing over the years, potentially providing a larger brain reserve that could protect against age-related brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The researchers studied MRIs of individuals born from the 1930s to the 1970s and found that babies born in the 1970s had nearly 15 percent more brain surface area and 6.6 percent more brain volume than those born in the 1930s.
The study, which used MRI data from the Framingham Heart Study, also observed growth in parts of the brain associated with memory and learning. While the implications of these larger brains are still uncertain in terms of intelligence, researchers believe that having a larger brain could be beneficial for brain health. Despite an increase in the number of Alzheimer’s disease patients with aging population, the percentage of newly diagnosed individuals has actually decreased per decade. This information was based on a study published in 2016 in the New England Journal of Medicine, which also analyzed data from the Framingham Heart Study.
UC Davis professor of neurology and study first author Charles DeCarli suggested that larger brain structures may reflect improved brain development and health, creating a larger brain reserve that could potentially protect against age-related brain diseases. The research findings hint at a potential link between brain size and brain health, suggesting that having a bigger brain could be advantageous when it comes to age-related cognitive decline.