人家年轻着呐

大脑是我们最复杂的器官。虽然神经科学家大致摸清了大脑某些部位负责的功能，但也留下了更多的谜团，比如说为什么有人会患上阿茨海默症。

There's also a lot of false information going around regarding brains. But what is certain is that keeping your brain young and healthy is vital – and certain exercises have been shown to stave off the effects of ageing pretty well.

关于大脑，即便在学术界内也流传着很多错误的认识。但可以肯定的是，想方设法令你的大脑年轻健康绝对是不会错的!现在已经证明了某些行为可以很好地抵消衰老带来的影响。

According to new research, published in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience, there could be another secret to keeping your brain youthful, and it's all to do with your mindset.

根据发表在Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience杂志上的一项新研究，可能还有一种简单易行的诀窍来保持大脑的年轻，它与你的思考方式有关。

Jeanyung Chey from Seoul National University in Korea wanted to investigate the link between subjective and real brain age. She and a team recruited 68 healthy people aged 59 to 84 years and performed MRI brain scans to analyse the amount of grey matter in different areas.

来自韩国首尔国立大学的Jeanyung Chey希望弄清楚研究主观认知和实际大脑年龄之间的联系。她和她的团队招募了68名年龄在59到84岁之间的身体健康的老年人，并对他们的脑部进行了MRI扫描，确定了不同脑区域的灰质数量。

The participants also completed a questionnaire about how old they were and whether they felt older or younger, and their cognitive abilities and perceived health were also assessed.

参与者还完成了一份关于他们的年龄以及他们对自我年龄认知的调查问卷，借此评估了他们的认知能力和自我感知中的健康状况。

The people who said they felt younger than their age were more likely to get a better score on a memory test. Also, they appeared to consider themselves more healthy, and were less likely to be depressed.

声称感觉比实际年龄更年轻的老人，在记忆测试中更有可能获得较高的分数。此外，他们通常也认为自己更加健康，并且不太可能感到沮丧。

It wasn't just down to performance, as those who felt younger also had increased grey matter volume in the inferior frontal gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus -areas associated with language, speech, and sound.

这不仅仅是外在的表现，因为感觉更年轻的老人的额下回和颞脑回的灰质体积也更加大。额下回和颞脑回与语言交流能力、文字阅读能力和接收声音的能力相关。

"We found that people who feel younger have the structural characteristics of a younger brain," Chey said in a statement."Importantly, this difference remains robust even when other possible factors, including personality, subjective health, depressive symptoms, or cognitive functions, are accounted for."

“我们发现自我感觉更年轻的老人具有年轻人大脑的结构特征，”Chey在一份声明中说，“重要的是，即使考虑到其他可能的因素，包括人格、主观健康、抑郁症状或认知功能，这种差异仍然足够显著。”

The researchers don't know for sure whether younger brain characteristics are responsible for someone's subjective age or not, but they think those who feel older may be more aware of the ageing process of their brains.

研究人员并不确定年轻的大脑特征是否与某人的主观年龄认知有关，但他们认为那些自我感觉年龄较大的人可能是因为更加强烈地体验到了自身的衰老过程。

Another possible explanation is people who feel younger engage in more physical and mental activity, and lead a generally more stimulating life, that improves their brain health.

另一种可能的解释是，那些感觉年轻的人会参与更多的有益身体和心理的活动，并且通常会在生活中挖掘出兴奋点，从而改善了他们的脑健康。

Those who feel older may have resigned themselves to their age and stopped being so agile and spritely, which impacts their cognitive abilities.

那些认同了自我年龄的老人可能已经与时间妥协，并且不再试图保持敏锐和活力充沛，这反过来影响到了他们的认知能力。

"If somebody feels older than their age, it could be a sign for them to evaluate their lifestyle, habits and activities that could contribute to brain ageing and take measures to better care for their brain health," said Chey.

“如果有人感觉到自我年龄大于实际年龄，这可以被看成是一种脑健康预警信号，他们可能需要重新评估自己的生活方式、生活习惯和日常活动。”Chey说。