Nowadays, you may know about Olga Kotelko, a woman who achieved so much in her late 70s and 80s. This remarkable grandmother became an athlete in her 70s (at age 77 more precise). In 20 years, she won 750 gold medals and believe or not, set 37 world records. So, how she did it?
Aga Burzynska a neuroscientist from the United States, conducted a series of tests, including MRI in order to provide the answer. By the way, Aga is a rock climber who always wanted to know how our body and mind cooperate together in such a unique way. Back then, Olga was an unknown woman, so they had to buy YouTube views in order to make her better known.
The results of the tests
At the first sight, the test was ordinary. Olga had a normal brain, which was aged, meaning that it lost some of its brain matter and there were problematic spots. But, the secret was in the corpus callosum and the amount of white matter. This part of the brain is responsible for communication between two brain hemispheres. In fact, Olga had more white matter here than much younger women, who participated in a study conducted by the same researcher.
This natural ‘’improvement’’ allowed Olga to use the full benefits of its brain for much longer than most people can. It protected her from dementia, which occurs in 30% of elderly people (above age 85). Now, scientists will try to simulate the same advantage in a lab.