Brain activity has role in human aging and longevity.

ISLAMABAD -- For the first time, scientists have shown that brain activity has a significant influence on human life span. In a new study, they demonstrate how neural activity is higher in individuals with shorter life spans and lower in those who live longer lives. Neuronal activity is lower in people who live longer, according to new research. In a recent Nature paper, researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, report how they found a distinct signature of human longevity in the genes of the brain's cerebral cortex.

The signature that they found is a pattern of gene expression that "is characterized by downregulation of genes related to neural excitation and synaptic function," write the authors. Neural activity is to do with the amount of signaling - in the form of electrical currents and other transmitters - that is going on the brain. Too much neural activity, or excessive excitation, can present in various ways, such as a muscle twitch or a mood change. For the study, the researchers performed cellular, genetic, and molecular experiments in worms.

They also analyzed mice with altered genes and examined brain tissue from people who were more than 100 years...