Researchers are set to gather at the University of Glasgow today, Thursday 24th March 2005, to debate and develop the longest follow-up study of mental ability differences ever carried out. Results so far indicate that lifestyle certainly appears to influence cognitive ageing, and by establishing how to maintain a healthy mind we can discover how to live our lives to the full.

73 years ago the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE), based at the University of Glasgow started one of the world's highest quality studies of ageing and mental abilities. The participants were almost 88,000 11 years olds. Now, they are over 80 years old and researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow are collaborating to find the secrets to a mentally and physically healthy old age.

Psychologist Professor Ian Deary from the University of Edinburgh is currently investigating non-pathological cognitive ageing - the changes in mental abilities that come with age. The Western World is shifting towards a greater proportion of older people. In tandem with the better-known physical changes of age, the brain grows old too. Some mental skills decline, especially from the seventh decade.

It is now well established that the quality of life in old age is affected by how well cognitive ability is maintained. A healthy mind begets, to a degree, a healthy and happy old age. But some people's thinking skills stay relatively sharp while others' are blunted. These differences in the ageing of the brain's functions are a priority for researchers.

One essential datum almost always missing from studies trying to discover why people differ in cognitive ageing is the way they were when we were younger. However, the 1932 Scottish Mental Survey provides a baseline for close to 100% of those born in Scotland in 1921. One key area of research is the study is of how our cognitive abilities change with age. It is rare to have a baseline measure from early life and only Scotland has the information to carry out such in-depth studies.

Dr Paul Brna, Director of SCRE at the University of Glasgow, said: 'We all want to know how to live lives to the full. If we understand how our life experiences and the environment influence our capacity to live then we can make informed decisions during the course of our lives. Scotland is the only place that has ever tested a complete nation for IQ. This is just one of the high quality events to arise out of SCRE's epoch-making surveys.'

The 1932 study and subsequent work is helping inform researchers about how we can best protect and develop our memory and our ability to learn. Such valuable knowledge is hard to obtain - a large number of participants need to be surveyed and the participants need to be tracked for almost their whole life.

The surveys carried out in 1932 and 1947 each provide a baseline for cognition later in life. There have already been several findings about influences on later cognition: genetic, social, educational, nutritional, lifestyle. So far, researchers have found ability at age 11 to be related to survival to old age, dementia, giving up smoking, some types of cancer, heart disease, etc.

The follow-up studies of SCRE's mental surveys are making important contributions to our understanding of mental ageing. A lot of cognitive ageing is linked to disease but SCRE and Professor Dreary are studying mental ageing and mental processes in older people.

The event is set to increase links between SCRE and researchers interested in the course of learning and interactions between cognitive, physical, social and environmental factors that affect learning.

Dr Valerie Wilson, SCRE, University of Glasgow, Tel: 0141 330 1968 or Jenny Murray, Press Officer, University of Glasgow, Tel: 0141 330 8593

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

First published: 24 March 2005