Research shows the age our brains actually peak and it will surprise you

Many people fear growing older and all the difficulties that can bring, whether it is their hair going grey or their minds and bodies deteriorating thanks to the ravages of time.

But new research could prove this age-related anxiety to be unfounded.

While aging can bring new aches, pains and wrinkles, the common notion that you might start 'losing it' and see your mental faculties start to slip away could be untrue.

Fresh research published in the scientific journal says intelligence has found that we might actually reach our psychological peak in our later years, with a noticeable increase in mental capacity just before retirement.

Similar to the typical age at which people are at the peak of their physical health - 25 to 30 - we can expect to reach the height of our wisdom and intelligence between the ages of 55 and 60.

You might not peak in some areas until your seventies

According to the study's authors, this could force us to change our understanding of age's relationship with mental capacity. Currently, there is a large body of research suggesting that our overall intellectual capacity begins to decline alongside our physical strength.

Most athletes find themselves considering retirement by 30, while even in academia many of the world's greatest mathematicians make their greatest contributions before their mid-30s.

However, study co-author Dr Gilles Gignac argues: "When we look beyond raw processing power, a different picture emerges."

The associate professor of psychology said that his study identified 16 key characteristics or our reasoning ability, including core cognitive abilities such as reasoning, memory span, processing speed, knowledge and emotional intelligence.

The study, also run by the Professor Marcin Zajenkowski of the University of Warsaw, referenced major personality traits, such as being extroverted, or a person's emotional stability, openness to experience, and conscientiousness.

While your physical performance peaks in your 20s, you might have to wait until your 70s for your brain to peak

After compiling existing large-scale studies on these 16 mental traits and standardizing them to a common scale, they found that several of these traits actually peak later in life, with some people reaching the height of their capabilities in some areas by their 70s.

Using this scale, it emerged that, on average, people are most conscientious by the age of 65, while the typical person will see their emotional stability peak by their mid 70s.

Interestingly, more complex personal characteristics also continue developing into our later years. We can expect our moral reasoning to peak in retirement, according to the study, as well as our 'capacity to resist cognitive biases'. For this last trait, we could even see our ability to make accurate decisions improving into our 80s.

So, you might have a few more decades yet before you can expect to reach full intellectual and emotional maturity.

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