New book examines the middle-aged brain

Barbara Strauch's new book,"The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain" ($26.95, Viking) provides some good news about the state of human brains at middle age. They don't necessarily deteriorate, and they in many ways improve with age.

By the time we hit our 40s, our brains have created connections and pathways over time, and Strauch--the health editor at The New York Times--says studies show how humans and animals function better if we have background knowledge, if we know something about a situation before encountering it.

"By middle age we’ve seen a lot. We’ve been there, done that," she tells Tara Parker-Pope on the Times' "Well" blog. "Our brains are primed to navigate the world better because they’ve been navigating the world better for longer."

Is that fascinating, or what?

Parker-Pope asks Strauch (in a Q&A that's worth reading in its entirety) what a middle-aged brain does better than a younger brain.

Her answer: "Inductive reasoning and problem solving — the logical use of your brain and actually getting to solutions. We get the gist of an argument better. We’re better at sizing up a situation and reaching a creative solution. They found social expertise peaks in middle age. That’s basically sorting out the world: are you a good guy or a bad guy? Harvard has studied how people make financial judgments. It peaks, and we get the best at it in middle age."