Contrary to stereotypes of the doddering elderly, research shows that half of people older than age 70 stay mentally sharp
As I watched my parents’ generation reach their 80s, I was struck by the dramatic differences among them. A handful suffered from dementia, but many others remained cognitively sharp—even if their knees and hips didn’t quite keep up with the speed of their thoughts.
Focusing on only those with poor brain health misses more than half the population. Rowe led research showing that in the six years after turning 75, about half of people showed little to no change in their physical, biological, hormonal and cognitive functioning, whereas the other half changed quite a lot. A longer-term study followed more than 2,000 individuals with an average age of 77 for up to 16 years.
The normal aging process does bring changes to the brain, says Denise Park, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas. There is some shrinkage in the frontal lobes and some damage to neurons and their connections. Cognitive processing slows down. Yet that slowdown is usually on the order of milliseconds and doesn’t always make a meaningful difference in daily life. And to compensate, older people activate more of the brain for tasks such as reading.
Such wisdom may be the result of a gradual shift in perspective, Carstensen says. As we age and become more aware that time is short, we focus more on the positive. A meta-analysis combining data on more than 7,000 older adults found they were significantly more likely than younger adults to lean toward the positive versus the negative when processing information.
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