What's Going On with My Aging Brain?
I was helping my 11-year-old granddaughter with her homework last night and I was blown away by the speed in which she learns. I had to look up the lesson a couple of times to make sure I was explaining things right – it was Math! She on the other hand heard me explain one time and she was off to the races. That math homework was done in a flash. I was so jealous – I want that fast brain again!
Here is what an aging brain looks like:
Cognitive decline starts around age 25. As we get older we see cognitive changes reflected in changes in mental abilities – including reasoning, attention, imagination, insight, executive functions such as planning and decision-making, and even the appreciation of beauty. But for most of us, memory is what we worry about the most.
Neurobiologist and Dana Alliance member James L. McGaugh Ph.D. of the University of California, Irvine is a memory expert. He says that people often come to him worried sick because they can’t remember people’s names anymore. His response to this is “what they didn’t realize is that they did the same thing in their 20s – they just didn’t give it a second thought. But now they think about it all the time and get stressed and anxious about it, when in fact it could just be a normal slip of the mind.”
As it turns out, slips of the mind happen all the time. Subtle deficits in memory of dates, names and events, begin showing up in our twenties and continue right into old age.
“Among the more common memory changes with normal aging:
“I’m too old to learn anything new”: As we age, our ability to lay down memories may be affected, making it harder to learn. It’s not that we forget more easily, but that initial encoding takes longer.
“This is too complicated for me”: Multitasking taxes the brain at any age, and trying to do several things at once may become more difficult as we become slower to shift from one set of skills to another. Slowed processing may influence other aspects of cognition, such as planning and reasoning and tasks that require “parallel processing” (cognitive flexibility) such as holding multiple items in memory.
“What was that called again?”: Remembering names and recalling where and when you learned them are examples of ‘strategic memory’, which starts declining around age 20. We may need to intentionally engage our brain to learn information that we want to recall later.
“Wasn’t I supposed to be somewhere this afternoon?”: Without specific cues to jog our memory, we sometimes fail to recall such things as appointments made weeks earlier. Although the information was put into storage properly, we are not accessing it when we need it. The best remedies are visual reminders, write notes to yourself, track dates on a calendar, and post notices, invitations or papers that need attention.
Staying Sharp, The Dana Foundation
There are physiological changes that occur with our aging brain. The following findings on how aging changes the brain are generalizations and may vary from person to person.
Brain mass: Beginning in the sixth or seventh decade of life, brain mass shrinks steadily – particularly in such areas as the frontal lobe (important for higher level cognitive functions) and the hippocampus (center for learning and memory).
Cortical density: The heavily ridged outer surface of the brain undergoes modest thinning. This is probably due to the steadily declining density of synaptic connections (starts around age 20). Fewer thread-like fibers to send and receive nerve signals in the cortex may contribute to slower cognitive processing.
White matter: Many studies have linked aging with a decrease in white matter, the bundles of axons that carry nerve signals between brain cells. Their length seems to shorten, and myelin shrinks. Since myelin improves nerve transmission efficiency, its loss may slow processing. Scientists have correlated these changes with reduced cognitive function.
Neurotransmitter systems: The aging brain generates less chemical messengers and has fewer receptors to lock onto them. Decreased dopamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and norepinephrine activity may contribute to declining memory and cognition and to increased depression among older people.
Staying Sharp, The Dana Foundation
I know – this is a lot to absorb. However, recent discoveries of neuroplasticity and neurogenesis allow us to slow or even reverse some of these aging changes. Lifestyle can speed these aging changes or could slow and reverse these changes. Our lifespan has increased over the years. This too can be a bonus – if we have a high functioning brain. Our declines start so early in our life and have progressed unabated – because we didn’t know and couldn’t see how our brain was aging. With a lifestyle dedicated to physical exercise, mental stimulation, nutrition, social connection, proper sleep, and stress reduction we can slow these declines. If we are truly committed to living this lifestyle – we can reverse these changes - we can change our brain.
Wisdom is a gift of aging. We need to tap into that wisdom for ourselves – so that we understand that with longevity comes additional challenges. If we maintain a high functioning brain throughout our entire lifetime, our future years can be healthier, happier and fulfilled.
Reference:
Sherman, C., Griffith, P., Reynolds, L. (2015). Staying Sharp Ask the Experts: Successful Aging and the Brain. The Dana Foundation.