Aging and Mental Acuity

One of the greatest fears associated with aging is losing the ability to think quickly, remember accurately, and reason clearly. We are all concerned about moments of memory loss, and we all wonder if this is a sign of dementia or other cognitive impairment. For years scientific studies indicated that mental skills declined in a rather predictable fashion.  More recent tests are starting to challenge these predictions. New studies have now concluded that healthy seniors can work, drive and live independently much longer than previously assumed.  Adults, it seems, can function much better in life than we give them credit for.

 

Memory loss is often more about your ability to retrieve information, or about being able to filter out irrelevant material than about actual cognitive decline.  I’ve always used the term sensory overload.  There is so much information bogging us down and distracting us that it makes it difficult to remember what we want to remember.

 

Earlier studies exaggerated mental decline, but it is now thought that older adults compensate easily for the modest changes that occur.  We can’t ignore that cognitive decline may happen, but we don’t have to live in fear of the aging process either.  Most researchers agree that a challenged, stimulated brain will retain and regenerate brain cells, which mean that your mental acuity will remain intact for a very long time.  Society has long underestimated the competency of older adults and older workers.

 

For example; one lady admitted that she had never had a good memory.  As you get older, people giggle and label any miscue as being a senior moment, but this particular individual didn’t feel that her memory was any worse than it had ever been.  I can relate to this theory because I have never been good remembering numbers but this has nothing to do with my age at all, and it doesn’t mean that I can’t deal with everyday life situations.    

 

Researchers still stress that it takes seniors longer to learn new information and that they are less able to multi-task.  Learning a foreign language at 60 is definitely more challenging than at age 20. Obviously it is important to challenge the brain with new experiences, but studies stress that it is important to do so in a social setting.  Connecting and interacting with others is an important as the learning itself.  While the brain does lose cells with age, recent studies conclude that it can still grow new cells and add new connections.  The good news is that brain function appears to be improving.  As a whole people are functioning at a higher level, for longer, than ever before.