After the presidential debate between the 78- and 81-year-old candidates last week – and the impression amongst some that President Joe Biden “old and frail,” with at the very least a public appeal for cognitive tests – in much of America, age was considered a problem.
But what does What does age actually do to the brain? Assets I consulted experts on aging issues to get a clearer picture.
The incredible shrinkage of the cerebral cortex
“The brain goes through many changes that accompany aging, and one of them is the shrinkage of what is known as the outer layer of the brain, or cortex,” says Emily Rogalski, professor of neurology on the University of Chicago and director of the Healthy Aging and Alzheimer Research Centertells Fortune.
The cerebral cortex, she explains, is just like the bark of a tree and the layer through which the brain cells live.
“It’s really important for our thinking and communication,” she says. Its decline tends to occur in areas related to memory, and tends to correlate with changes in memory – which, consider it or not, peaks once we’re barely in our twenties or early thirties.
Attention and executive functions are also in danger. “And all of these things are connected in some way, because you have to be able to concentrate well to remember something,” says Rogalski. “Our cognitive functions don’t just sit on little islands of ‘here is the memory and here is the attention’ and there is no interaction. It’s a complex system.”
Age-related memory loss is normal
A recent McKnight Brain Research Foundation surveyemphasizes Patricia Boyle, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Rush University and neuropsychologist on the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Centerfound that 87% of Americans fear they are going to suffer from age-related memory loss and a decline in brain function as they age.
“However, many people don’t realize that age-related memory loss is not always a sign of a serious cognitive problem,” says Boyle. Assets“Most people don’t understand that age-related memory loss is usually associated with mild forgetfulness and is a normal part of brain aging and not necessarily a sign of a serious memory problem.”
In her opinion, the signs of normal aging include:
- Occasionally make a nasty decision
- Missing monthly payment
- Losing track of time
- Not finding the best words
- Losing things in the home
“As we get older, it’s normal to notice signs of cognitive aging, just as it’s normal to notice physical signs of the body aging, such as slower movements or more pain,” says Boyle.
Brain shrinkage accelerates with age
Brain volume continues to diminish with age – including Frontal lobe and hippocampusthe areas accountable for cognitive functions – with the speed of shrinkage increasing from across the age of 60.
“As we get older, our risk of many diseases increases simply by getting older,” which is sensible, explains Rogalski, whenever you consider the wear and tear and tear and increasing vulnerability of our bodies – and the incontrovertible fact that, unlike hips or knees, there is no such thing as a brain alternative.
With age, two kinds of atypical lack of cognitive function can occur, notes Dr John RoweProfessor of health policy and aging at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health: Dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), “an age-related change that occurs in 12 to 18% of older people over 65,” he says. “And what is reflected in daily life is that people become more forgetful, they lose things, they miss appointments, and this can have an impact on their daily functioning.” MCI, he adds, progresses to dementia in about 10% of individuals per 12 months.
Some older adults perform at peak levels
Rogalski stresses that as we age, it is vital to focus not only on the things that go mistaken, but additionally on recent possibilities. “A big challenge with aging is the stigma that comes with aging and the expectations that we place on people as they get older – that it’s all downhill – and that we take away activities and responsibilities that they can take on.”
And that is an issue in some recent, luxury assisted living facilities, she says, which supply services from room service to folding laundry. “It turns out that a lot of these daily activities that we do, like washing our dishes or just walking around, are actually very good at keeping those muscles strong.” Equally essential is keeping our brains engaged and lively, which may be done in some ways. “That can be done by socializing. That can be done by learning something new. But we should be thinking about exercising our brains and using our bodies, including how to exercise our fine motor skills … and when those things are taken away from us and done for us, we’re not necessarily doing ourselves any favors.”
Nevertheless, Rowe emphasizes: “There is enormous variability. And what we are seeing is a growing proportion of the older population that is at the peak of performance and is a kind of superager.”
Appearance of the Superagers …
Rogalski, through her research as a part of the continuing, multidisciplinary SuperAging Research Initiativeexamines evidence from biological perspectives, family history and lifestyle to seek out out why some people hardly age in any respect, at the very least cognitively.
“We found that superagers look different biologically. Their brains are more similar to those of 50- to 60-year-olds than to those of 80-year-olds,” she says, adding that their rate of shrinkage is slower than that of the typical 80-year-old.
“So they seem to be resisting the thinning of the outer brain layer or cortex, and when we measure that with very precise tools, we see that the brains of superagers actually show no shrinkage compared to those of 50- to 60-year-olds,” she says. In fact, there is a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which plays a task in motivation, decision-making, and emotional and situational cues, that is thicker in superagers than in 50- to 60-year-olds. They’ve also discovered an abundance of a neuron called von Economo neurons, which helps scientists discover a “biological pathway” to understanding superagers.
Years ago, Rowe told Assetshe led a research network at Harvard University that looked into “successful aging.” In one study, he followed a gaggle of 75-year-olds for six years and tested them physically and cognitively during that point. “At the end, 25% had not changed, 50% had gotten significantly worse, and the others remained somewhere in the middle,” says Rowe, mentioning that those that did best, the superagers, shared certain lifestyle characteristics, including not living alone, having a better level of education, and financial security.
It underscores that when you were to bring together a gaggle of 80-year-olds today to evaluate their cognitive abilities, you’ll get mixed results: probably just a few with dementia, one or two super-agers, and others in between. This just isn’t only because people’s brains change at different rates, but additionally because of various lifestyles, genetic predispositions, and other aspects.
The bottom line, says Rowe, who points out that he himself is 80, “I don’t think we can speak with any meaningful validity of an average when we try to reduce this to a decision about an individual. I don’t think we can attribute to an individual the average of an 80-year-old.”
