Older but Mellower: Aging brain shifts gears to emotional advantage Bruce Bower Given all the bad news that science has delivered about brain cells withering and memory waning as the years mount, older people have a right to be cranky. But, instead, the over-50 crowd handles life's rotten realities and finds life's bright side more effectively than whippersnappers do. In no small part, that's because the aging brain makes critical emotional adjustments, a new study indicates. NEURAL FEEL. As people age, from 12 to 79 years old, they respond to fear with greater and greater boosts in medial prefrontal activity...