Everyone knows, and many of us fear, the impact of aging on brain functions. The brains of older people process information slower, leading to lapses in memory and difficulty multitasking. It becomes troublesome to find the right word when speaking or writing, and there may be problems with attention and focus.
The physical changes in the aging brain are less well-known, but may be the cause of the functional changes. The volume of the frontal and temporal lobes decreases with age, as does blood flow. The nerve cells that make up the brain begin to deteriorate. Neurotransmitter chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin also decrease. Overall, there is more inflammation and tissue damage in the brain as we get older.
There are diseases related to brain changing in older adults. These include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and various forms of dementia, including frontotemporal, vascular, and dementia with Lewy bodies.
Research comparing error correction between younger and older adults points out some interesting differences in their brains. When asked general information questions as in a trivia quiz, older adults were more likely to answer correctly. However, when given the correct answer to questions they got wrong, older adults were less likely to get that question correct on a retest.
Recent similar testing relating answers to the respondent’s confidence in their correctness showed a mental advantage of older adults. When offered the correct answer to questions they were less confident about and had gotten wrong, older adults were more likely than younger adults to later recall the corrected answers. The researchers attributed this result to older adults not wanting to make mistakes and focusing their attention more strongly on the corrected answers than did younger adults.
Apparently, it IS possible to teach older dogs new tricks, so to speak.
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