The idea of getting older often leaves people uncertain about what to expect, especially when it comes to holding onto their mental acuity. These worries are only made worse by the racket in the media about the aging of the minds of political leaders. Despite the evidence to the contrary, it’s common to fear the prospect of getting old and losing one’s wits.
This evidence to the contrary often appears in scientific articles, but may not make it to the popular press. For example, since the early 2000s (at least), researchers in the field have pointed to the possibility of plasticity, both in the brain and in cognitive functioning. This evidence also includes the idea of “cognitive reserve,” the existence of a repository of both neurons and information that people acquire over their lifetimes. Like a bank, people can dip into this reserve to balance out losses that might occur due to normal aging or changes in the brain associated with chronic diseases.
Why, then, is this good news about aging so often dismissed? It’s extremely hard to overcome not just decades but centuries of looking at later life as a miserable period of existence (Shakespeare’s line- “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything”). However, with the aging of the population, this perspective is more important to keep in mind than ever. It can also provide individuals with hope about their own personal futures.
One of the most compelling arguments in favor of plasticity comes from a 2014 article by University of Tübingen Michael Ramscar and colleagues. Using computer modeling to simulate the amount of information the aging brain has acquired, the authors showed that if you stuff a computer with as much knowledge as people accumulate through life, such as names and facts, a computer will take as long and make as many retrieval errors as research on live subjects tends to produce. Think of how much new information you pick up every day, whether through a chat with a friend or by watching an episode of "Jeopardy!" on TV. Sorting through all of this........