Newly published research shows that birding may have dramatic benefits for people’s neurological health as they age, and there’s good reason to believe the same benefits extend to an adjacent, popular hobby: bird photography. As NBC News reports, the newly published Canadian study, “The tuned cortex: Convergent expertise-related structural and functional remodeling across the adult lifespan,” showed that the brains of expert, longtime birders showed more density in regions of the brain related to attention and perception. Scientists believe there may be a link between tissue density in these brain areas and increased communication between neurons. “Our brains are very malleable,” lead study author Erik Wing says. As people learn new skills, neuroplasticity in the brain increases, which directly correlates with a person’s ability to remain cognitively flexible and mentally healthy.…