‘Here’s Something I Didn’t Know Until I Was In My 30s’: Guy Is Sharing 27 Useful Tips People Wish They Had Known Sooner

Not everything goes downhill as we age. Well, surely our close friends circle becomes smaller, hangovers get worse and more responsibilities fall on our shoulders. But a new body of research has shown that some of our brain abilities improve as we age.

For example, a 2011 study looking at data from more than 60,000 people found that our ability to recognize faces continued to improve as we age—until just after we hit age 30. "At almost any given age, most of us are getting better at some things and worse at others," lead study author and MIT department of brain and cognitive sciences researcher Joshua Hartshorne commented to Business Insider.

Another more recent study found that some of our abilities, like reading others' emotions and recalling events that have just happened, to name a few, keep improving until we turn 30. Incredibly, skills like basic math and a larger vocabulary rise throughout our lives and reach their peak around when we turn 50.

Does that mean that we get smarter with age? Well, it depends what we define as ‘smart,’ but some of our cognitive abilities do indeed improve as we age. However, some will deteriorate, like our ability to quickly process and recall information (also known as fluid intelligence), which peaks at about the age of 18. After its peak, those abilities continually fall over the rest of our lives.

But that doesn’t mean it’s bad news for us. There is another study suggesting that having a greater purpose in life can help protect against cognitive decline among older adults. In fact, greater purpose in life has been linked to reduced all-cause mortality and cardiovascular problems, increased longevity, maintenance of general physical functioning, reduced risk of stroke and reduced incidence of sleep disturbances.