The good stuff in chocolate brings not only good cheer and improved blood flow: A new study suggests it may have the power to turn back the clock on age-related memory loss. In research that will need to be replicated by larger trials, a concentrated daily dose of epicatechin, a compound derived from the cocoa bean, made a typical 60-year-old’s memory perform more like that of a 30- or 40-year-old.

A small trial set out to explore the effect of dietary “flavanols” on the dentate gyrus, a structure in that brain’s hippocampal region that plays a critical role in certain kinds of memory. The dentate gyrus becomes notably less active and less effective with normal aging.

A test drink that concentrated about 900 milligrams of flavanols was produced by the Mars company. Nineteen subjects between the ages of 50 and 69 drank the test drink daily for three months, while 18 drank a beverage containing only 10 milligrams of the cocoa-derived flavanols.

Upon recruitment and at three months, both groups had their brains scanned and performed a memory test assessing a distinctive form of memory for novel shapes and patterns-an assessment that tests the dentate gyrus.