TUESDAY, Aug. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Breakdowns in brain
connections may be the reason why your physical response times
slow as you age, a new study has found. The decline occurs in an
area of the brain called the corpus callosum, which helps
regulate "cross-talk" between the two sides of the brain, said
lead author Rachael Seidler, an associate professor in the
School of Kinesiology and psychology department at the
University of Michigan. Normally, one side of the brain controls
movement on the opposite side of the body. For example, the left
side of the brain controls movement on the right side of the
body. But when regulation of cross-talk between the two sides of
the brain starts to break down with age, both sides of the brain
talk simultaneously while one side of the body tries to move,
resulting in slower response times, the researchers explained.
Seidler and colleagues studied the response times and brain
activity of adults aged 65 to 75 as they used computer
joysticks, and compared them to a group of