• Question: Can you tell the age of a person from their brain cells?

    Asked by Daniel Cedar Bakrovitch to Robert on 9 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Robert Lees

      Robert Lees answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      Great question, Daniel!

      There are a lot of factors that affect our brain cells as we age, some people lose them faster than others (neurodegenerative diseases) and have a build up of different molecules inside them. For example, ‘plaques’ and ‘tangles’, which are two things that affect brain cells, can start to build up at different ages.

      You could use the DNA within the brain cells to tell roughly at what age the person is. But it would be a very difficult task and it definitely wouldn’t be exact (within a 5-10 year range).

      There is no good way to measure the exact age of a person, the best way is still their teeth, I think!

Comments