Healthy Aging │ Are You Getting Smarter As You Age?

Many cognitive abilities shift somewhat as we get older, but not always in a negative direction. While your ability to concentrate or recall many things may decline somewhat as you hit the north side of 40, other cognitive functions (such as your knowledge and vocabulary) are likely to stay the same. At the same time, basic creativity, insight into complex situations, and the ability to evaluate circumstances accurately may actually improve with the passing years.

HEALTHY AGING: QUICK-WITTED?

Why do some of our mental abilities become sharper over the years? It appears that your brain’s neural networks develop shortcuts that provide you with “a mental template of how you might use new information based on long-term memory stores,” says Gary Small, M.D., director of the UCLA Center on Aging and author of "The Longevity Bible."

Similarly, complex reasoning skills, areas of expertise (say, playing chess or designing furniture) and executive function (a set of cognitive abilities that help you control, plan and apply other mental skills and behaviors) are likely to remain intact.

“The wisdom of age—the amalgamation of experiences with knowledge—kicks in,” says George T. Grossberg, M.D., Samuel Fordyce Professor and director of geriatric psychiatry at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. “For some, it’s also a time of creativity: Some artists, architects and composers do their best work as they get older, probably because they’re able to utilize their past experiences and apply what they’ve learned in unusual ways.”

HEALTHY AGING: WHAT SLOWS DOWN IN YOUR BRAIN

The concentration of neurotransmitters—chemicals in the brain that influence mood, mental agility and memory—tends to decrease as people get older. And that can alter brain function, notes Cathy McEvoy, Ph.D., a professor of aging studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa. A look at some of the ways your brain might slow down:

* Tip-of-tongue phenomenon

As you age you might struggle more frequently to come up with the right word or name. You might also take longer to learn new information, especially if it involves fairly complex material. “Probably the area that changes the most with age is immediate recall,” notes Dr. Grossberg. “The ability to [immediately] remember a previously learned piece of information—whether it’s a name or a date—on demand may not be quite as sharp as it was before. It isn’t gone; given a little time, it will come back.”

* Prospective memory

Remembering to do something in the future (to pick up your dry cleaning on the way home from work, for example)—can also become less reliable, McEvoy says.

* Concentration

Noticed that your powers of concentration aren’t as keen as they used to be? That’s probably not a fluke. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to study people as they age, researchers at the Rotman Research Institute at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto found that changes in brain activity that begin in middle age can, in later life, cause people to become more easily distracted by irrelevant information or to lose focus on the task at hand. “If people have a harder time turning off task-irrelevant processing, such as thinking about what to have for dinner, they will find it harder to concentrate on a task,” notes Cheryl Grady, Ph.D., senior scientist and assistant director at the institute.

Is aging good for the brain? Let’s just say it’s different. You might have trouble remembering names, or immediate plans, but when you come across a complicated situation, your brain is prepared. So enjoy this stage in life—you’ve earned it!

Writer: Stacey Colino
©REMEDY, Summer 2007

Free Article Source: http://www.freecontentarticles.com

Warning: This article is for educational and entertainment purposes only! Never implement, use, or follow the contents of this article without consulting a professional.

Please Don't Forget to Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated