A group of UK scientists have a rare opportunity to study human brains thanks to the promise of donations of brains after death by some members of a study group. The dissection of these brains and the counting of the numbers of synapses in them may add evidence to the idea of ‘cognitive reserve’: when a person gets older, they start to lose some brain synapses, with a negative impact on cognitive function. Those elderly people who have led a ‘brain friendly’ lifestyle when younger are thought to have created extra synapses, mitigating the naturally occurring loss of synapses through age. Adopting a ‘brain friendly’ lifestyle when younger should make it possible to retain cognitive performance into old age. Such a lifestyle is thought to include reading books, being socially active and physically healthy.