Human Brains Peak at 35 Years of Age

• Chess is the ideal cognitive task because it involves the use of perception, memory, and problem-solving.
• A team of researchers analyzed the performance of over 4,000 professional chess players, and over a span of 125 years.
• They found their performance peaked at approximately 35 years of age and deteriorated after age 45. مراهنات كرة القدم اليوم

Cognitive performance is a person’s ability to perform mental activities associated with memory, learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. During early childhood, the brain is most susceptible to developing cognitive skills. However, after middle-age, our cognitive functioning starts to decline. مواقع المراهنات  

In the world of neuroscience and psychology, Chess is a game that’s often used as a measure of cognitive ability. The strategic board game requires the identification and configuration of chess pieces on the board, which involves the use of different brain regions.

Therefore, the team of researchers chose to analyze professional chess players in order to investigate cognitive performance patterns. The team consisted of researchers from Institut Polytechnique Paris, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat München, and Erasmus University. مواقع رهان

Cognitive Performance Among Chess Players

According to the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers analyzed over 20,000 chess games played between the years 1890 to 2014. The games involved some of the best players in the world as well as 20 world champions. 

Researchers compared the move-by-move performance of each player against a computerized chess engine that suggested the best possible move. 

A Decline After 40

They observed a ‘hump-shaped’ pattern in the cognitive performance of chess players over the life cycle. 

The majority of the players showed a rapid increase in performance until the age of 20 years. A slower increase in cognitive performance occurred after, with a peak at approximately 35 years of age. After age 45 the cognitive skills of the players were seen to decline. 

Moreover, the researchers found performance, particularly among the younger players, significantly increased over the past 125 years. Likely as a result of access to computerized chess games in the 1990s. Thus, providing players with greater experience.

Reference:

Anthony Strittmatter et al. Life cycle patterns of cognitive performance over the long run, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006653117