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When ancient wisdom precedes modern neuroscience

Nature Aging volume 1, pages 235–236 (2021)Cite this article

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To the Editor — Ever since the development of experimental medicine, scientists have been struggling to explain the mechanisms underlying brain changes responsible for the decline of cognitive abilities that arise as we age (for example, learning, memory, attention, concentration, critical evaluation and decision-making). After a period in which cognitive decline was attributed to massive neuron death, it was demonstrated that age-related neuron loss, albeit substantial, could not account for it alone1. Later on, striking differences in synaptic function were demonstrated between the young adult and the aged brain1,2. The ensuing investigations related the new evidence to an essential feature of synapses: their plasticity. We now know that use does not only make synapses more efficient, but that it also changes their structure3, and that stimulation — the more varied, the better — strengthens cognitive functions4. Studies in animals and humans have shown that age-related cognitive decline is associated with alterations in synaptic plasticity2,3, and that plasticity is not completely abolished in the aged brain and can be reactivated by enrichment strategies. These findings, together with the documentation of adult neurogenesis, have opened new avenues for the prevention4 and treatment5 of cognitive decline and disorders. It is to synaptic plasticity that we owe our neurobiological uniqueness, that is, our ‘individuality’, a notion that fits with the observation that some individuals exhibit high cognitive performances in their nineties and beyond, whereas others show severe impairments at a much earlier age6. Research in this area also generated the notion of cognitive reserve, which posits that exercising synapses confers protection against their deterioration in old age.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 bc) was the greatest Roman orator and the acknowledged master of Latin prose. As a philosopher, Cicero made his countrymen familiar with the major schools of Greek thought and provided Rome and, thereby, Europe with its philosophical vocabulary. Cato Maior De senectute (or De senectute; On Old Age), written a year before Cicero’s death in the form of an Aristotelian dialogue, is an outstanding essay which everyone should read at least once. In section (36), Cicero noted inter-individual variability: “…senile debility, usually called ‘dotage’, is a characteristic, not of all old men, but only of those who are weak in mind and will”7. And in section (22), he seemed to grasp the potential explanation: “and how is it with aged lawyers, pontiffs, augurs and philosophers? What a multitude of things they remember! Old men retain their mental faculties, provided their interest and application continue; and this is true, not only of men in exalted public station, but likewise of those in the quiet of private life”7.

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Fig. 1: Marcus Tullius Cicero.

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  1. Section of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Fiorenzo Conti

  2. Center for Neurobiology of Aging, IRCCS INRCA, Ancona, Italy

    Fiorenzo Conti

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  1. Fiorenzo Conti
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Correspondence to Fiorenzo Conti.

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Conti, F. When ancient wisdom precedes modern neuroscience. Nat Aging 1, 235–236 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00037-3

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