Research suggests that continuing to learn throughout your lifetime, and particularly as you age, can help keep the mind sharper, and protect against neurodegeneration. Now a study suggests that being expert in a hobby that uses perception, attention and memory could also be effective at preserving cognitive skills.
The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience , found that experts in bird identification had structural modifications in regions of the brain involved in attention and perception. The researchers suggest that these changes could mitigate age-related cognitive decline.
Emer MacSweeney , MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, consultant neuroradiologist and CEO and Consultant Neuroradiologist at Re:Cognition Health, who was not involved in this research, told Medical News Today that: “This study provides intriguing evidence that high-level skill acquisition — expert birdwatching in this case — is associated with measurable structural differences in the brain, particularly in regions involved in attention and perception.
Medical News Today published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 27 Feb 2026.
The item focuses on Expert birders have younger brains: How expertise may protect brain health.
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