A study in the Journal of Neuroscience has found that becoming an expert birder may actually be beneficial for your brain health. The study involved 58 participants divided into two groups, with the expert group consisting of 29 people aged 24 to 75 from the Toronto Ornithological Club and Ontario Field Ornithologists. The novice group consisted of 29 individuals aged 22 to 79 from the same birding groups and other groups focused on outdoor activities such as hiking and gardening. The participants underwent a diffusion-weighted MRI, which assessed structural differences in their brains. The expert group had lower “mean diffusivity” or MD, in certain areas of their brains, which is associated with greater tissue density and increased structural complexity. The lower MD was also associated with higher bird identification accuracy. While the study could not prove a casual link between positive brain changes and birding experience, it suggests that specialized knowledge accumulated across life might support memory function in older adults.