A drug commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease could help to reverse age-related deficits in decision-making, a study has found.
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London assessed 32 healthy people in their early 70s, as well as 22 volunteers in their mid-20s.
Participants underwent a range of behavioural and brain imaging tests, with the older volunteers tested both on and off a drug called L-DOPA (levodopa), which increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine and is often given to people with Parkinson's disease.
Older people tended to perform worse in the tests, but showed a 'significant improvement following drug treatment', according to lead researcher Dr Rumana Chowdhury.
Further analysis revealed that the drug corrected deficits in patterns of brain activity in the older participants' brains, leading to improvements in their performance.
Dr Chowdhury, whose findings are published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, revealed: 'When we treated older people who were particularly bad at making decisions with a drug that increases dopamine in the brain, their ability to learn from rewards improved to a level comparable to somebody in their 20s and enabled them to make better decisions.'
Dr John Williams, head of neuroscience at mental health at the Wellcome Trust, added that the findings could lead to new therapies to help older people 'function more effectively'.