Older people don't lose cognitive power, they just know too much, say scientists

A new study of memory recall in older people suggests that our brains don’t lose cognitive power with age they just recall information more slowly, like a computer filled to bursting with data. “The human brain works slower in old age but only because we have stored more information over time,” said Dr Michael Ramscar of Tübingen University in Germany and lead author of the study. “The brains of older people do not get weak. On the contrary, they simply know more.”

Dr Ramscar’s research focused on re-evaluating the standard measures for cognitive performances, methods that he and his team claim are flawed. Using computers, the researchers modelled memory recall from different stages in an adult’s lifetime, finding that when the computers’ memory bank was smaller their performance resembled a young adult. When the computer was asked to recall information from a larger data set the performance looked more like that of an older adult.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/older-people-dont-lose-cognitive-power-they-just-know-too-much-say-scientists-9074205.html

I 100% agree with that [though others may think differently]

nicko wrote:I 100% agree with that [though others may think differently]

Hi Nicko.  Totally agree.  Be good if they invented organic memory sticks so people can download when their drive's full.

Tess. wrote:

nicko wrote:I 100% agree with that [though others may think differently]

Hi Nicko.  Totally agree.  Be good if they invented organic memory sticks so people can download when their drive's full.

Just as long as someone doesn't lose their memory stick and it gets picked up by someone else who uses it instead.

The mind boggles.

Very interesting. I've long thought that this idea that we lose cognition as we age is dangerous anyway and becomes too much of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I'll second that lol

they recon memory is the second thing to go...now what was the first????????

grumpy old git wrote:they recon memory is the second thing to go...now what was the first????????

Good lord, please don't let it be that!!!!