» Natural News » Ageing

Staying positive is one of the key influences in aging successfully

Accentuate the positive – the secret to successful ageing

When it comes to successful ageing, education, health and economic status are all important. But, according to German neuroscientists who have studied images of the brains of young and older adults, the “positivity effect” is also influential.

That simple conclusion arose from a rather complex study conducted by scientists at the University of Hamburg in Germany, and published in Biological Psychiatry.

The experiment involved people performing tasks that required focus and concentration.  In the mist of this participants were also given seemingly irrelevant pictures of happy, sad, fearful or neutral faces.

During certain parts of the task when participants were told they could relax, researchers found that the elderly subjects were much more engaged by the sight of a happy face.

By scanning the brains of participants, they discovered increased activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that controls emotions. High levels of activity in this part of the brain are associated with good mental health.

The scientists concluded that simply focusing your brain on positive thoughts, and living for the moment, rather than looking too far into the future, can help maintain good mental health.

Commenting on the findings Dr John H. Krystal, the Editor of Biological Psychiatry said: “The lessons of healthy aging seem to be similar to those of resilience, throughout life…when coping with extremely stressful life challenges, it is critical to realistically appraise the situation but also to approach it with a positive attitude.”