MEMORY LOSS AND AGING
How many times have you walked into a room and forgotten what you came for? Searched in vain for keys that have mysteriously disappeared? Or forgotten the name of someone you should know? Such moments of forgetfulness happen to everyone – even the young – buy as we get older, they may leave us wondering if we’re losing our edge. Or worse, they may invoke the specter of Alzheimer’s disease, the progressive dementia that now affects 4 million Americans.
Remembering and forgetting are perfectly normal parts of everyday life. But what happens as we get older? Is losing our memory an inevitable part of aging? And how do we know if it’s an early sign of Alzheimer’s?
Scientists are just begging to sort out the answers to these questions. Much of the news from brain research is good. Cognitive decline may not be inevitable as we age, experts say. While with advancing age many people may experience some degree of change in so-called cognitive abilities, which include memory as well as a range of other intellectual functions, how big a change varies greatly. Moreover, there are a number of things we can do that seem to impact our memory and overall brain health as we age.
COGNITION VS. MEMORY
Many studies of brain aging look at a range of cognitive abilities, beyond memory alone. Cognition includes not only remembering and forgetting, but also abstract thinking, reasoning, attention, imagination, insight, and even appreciation of beauty.
WHERE MEMORIES ARE MADE.
Philosophers and scientists have been studying and debating the roots of memory for centuries, yet there are still many unanswered questions about how the brain accomplishes this most basic of mental functions. Memory is not a single process, but rather a series of interactive processes beginning when we are exposed to new information, which is registered by the brain, encoded, and in the right conditions, stored for later retrieval.
The brain systems most involved with memory are; the Motor Cortex, Prefrontal Cortex, Thalmus, Temporal lobe, Amygdala, Hippocampus, Cerebellum. The brain seems to have different, though overlapping, systems for the two primary types of memories, declarative and nondeclarative.
Delclarative, or explicit, memories are those that can be recalled consciously and described verbally. They include the facts, people, places, and things that we encounter daily. Delarative memories primarily involve the brain’s medial temporal lobes, the hippocampus in particular, and the prefrontal cortex, where higher intellectual functions seem to originate.
Nondeclarative, or implicit, memory is the capacity for learning skills and procedures, including motor skills such as those used when playing golf or dancing. As such, it involves the anygdala and brain areas related to movement, such as the cerebellum and motor cortex.
FOREGETTING AND MEMORY LOSS
As brain functions go, forgetting may be almost as important as remembering; it would be inefficient for our brains to try to retain every bit of information we’re exposed to throughout life. How the brain sorts out what makes it into long-term memory and what doesn’t is a matter of continuing debate, and may be influenced by many factors, including our emotional state, stress level, the environment around us, previous memories, biases and perceptions.
Brain scientists believe that the effects of normal aging on memory may result from the subtly changing environment within the brain. With aging, the brain seems to lose cells in areas that produce important neurotransmitters, upsetting the brain’s delicate balance of these chemical messengers. Other changes occur in the brain’s white matter, which is made up of nerve cell fibers, the “Telephone cables” of brain cells through which communication with other cells takes place. Just how these changes affect memory is not entirely clear, but it may be that they decrease the efficiency of cell-to-cell communication.
What scientists do know is that, as we get older, our ability to lay down new memories may be affected, making it more difficult to learn new things. It’s not so much that we forget more easily, but that we may take longer to learn the information in the first place. Memory studies have shown that about a third of healthy older people have difficulty with declarative memory, yet a substantial number of 80-year olds perform as well as people in their 30’s on difficult memory tests. More good news; once something is learned, it is retained equally well by all age groups, even if it takes a bit longer for the older people to learn it.
In practical terms, this means that as we get older, we may have to pay closer attention to new information that we want to retain, or use different strategies to improve learning and trigger memories.
KEEPING YOUR MEMORY SHARP:
What may seem like a faltering memory may in fact be a decline in the rate at which we learn and store new information. Practice these memory skills to enhance learning and make remembering easier.
Relax: Tension and stress are associated with memory lapses, and managing stress improves memory.
Cocentrate: Your teachers were right: if you want to recall something later, pay attention.
Focus: Try to reduce distractions and minimize interferences.
Slow down: If your rushing, you may not be focused or paying full attention.
Organize: Keep important items in a designated place that is visible and easily accessed.
Write it down: Carry a notepad and calendar, and write down important things.
Repeat it: Repetition improves recall; use it when meeting new people and learning new things.
Visualize it: Associating a visual image with something you want to remember can improve recall.
MEMORY LOSS OR ALZHEIMER’S?
Even though memory loss is one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, there are clear diffences between what scientists call “age related memory loss” (ARML) and dementia – both in the symptoms that might be experienced and in the underlying biological changes in the brain. While dementia involves a broad loss of cognitive abilities, ARML is primarily a deficit of declarative memory. Forgetting where you parked your car happen to everyone occasionally, but forgetting what your car looks like may be a cause for concern.
Brain researchers are working hard to pin down where forgetfulness ends and Alzheimer’s begins. The question is a difficult one, and a subject of much debate among experts in brain aging. One important clue from brain research is that people with Alzheimer’s are able to retain significantly less information after a period of delay than healthy people. That means that new information may be learned, but little will be remembered after a delay of even a few hours.
Other studies have suggested that Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a condition marked by repeated lapses in short-term memory, may in fact be early-stage Alzheimer’s in some patients – but certainly not in all.
Distinct changes in memory that occur over the course of a year or two, and can be verified with psychological testing, are the hallmarks of MCI. Such changes may at first be mild enough that daily functions are not disrupted and are often first noticed by a loved one.
If you or someone you love is experiencing significant changes in memory or persistent forgetfulness that interferes with work or home responsibilities, seek a doctor’s help. Stress and fatigue can affext memory, and even if MCI is diagnosed, there may be a cause other than Alzheimer’s, such as side effects from medications, depression, stroke or mini-strokes, or a head injury.
DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER’S
Dementia is a medical condition that disrupts the way the brain works. Generally used to describe people with impaired cognitive functioning, it can affect young and old alike. It is not a normal part of the aging process. There are many different type s of dementia.
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