Hippocampus: Aging The Brain

Aging is a natural process of cognitive impairment in elderly people causing loss of executive functions as compared to younger people. A huge number of people in our current population are in this group. Eurostats (European statistical Institute) data show 18.9% of the European population in 2015 was 65 years and over. With aging, the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia increases.

A topic I learned more of this semester in regards to the older population was dementia. Some loss in memory function is an inevitable consequence of aging, and as one ages, it takes more time to process information and retrieve memories. However, "Dementia is a general term that refers to progressive, degenerative brain dysfunction, including deterioration in memory, concentration, language skills, visuospatial skills, and reasoning, that interferes with a person's daily functioning" (Mauk, 2014, p. 377). This loss of mental skills affects the ability to function over time, causing problems with memory and how one thinks, impacting these individual's overall quality of life.

when asked about mental challenges of aging she said that she believes she hasn’t experienced many mental challenges yet. She fears they are to come however. She admits to having what she calls “senior moments” at times where she forgets what she was just about to say or repeats questions she has already asked her husband hours before. She has downloaded the app Luminosity on her iPad and plays the games to help with her memory and to hopefully avoid memory decline. She said she really enjoys playing some of the memory games they have. She isn’t completely convinced that it will help prevent memory decline, but she enjoys playing the games and believes it won’t do any harm.

Why does the human brain age? Brain aging is a part of human life and a big part of society as the awareness for brain aging increases. Over time memory tends to become less efficient as we age and the neurons in the brain decreases (Bendheim, P.E. (2009). By 2050 in the US, 20 percent of the population will be 65 years or older. And as the elderly population increases, so will the incidence of age-related neurological disorders (Perlmutter, David. (2004). Therefor it is important to understand the aging brain, and how to keep the brain functioning as one ages.

Some researchers hypothesize that the hippocampus is involved in some types of memory processes but not others. This particular study measured brain activity using fMRI during two types of memory tasks: remember (episodic memory) and know (familiarity). A memory was considered “episodic” if the person could recall the moment it was learned and “familiar” if they felt they recognized the word but could not retrieve the specidic moment it was learned. The a priori (pre-selected) region of interest( ROI) in the hippocampus

The aging brain doesn’t grow old; the brain can outlive 120 years. Staying active really reproduce neurons in the brain. When people start to loose their memory they are really just loosing memory receptors which makes it harder to recall memories. The amazing thing about your brain is you can retrain it. If you suffer from a stroke and lose the function of your left arm, with lots of practice and persistence you can retrain your brain and make that arm function again.

If you are the caregiver of a senior who is experiencing signs of any memory problems, it's a smart idea to mention it to their doctor, so they can give other tests to determine if they are experiencing any kind of cognitive

Age-related declines are not constant across brain regions. Moreover, patterns of brain aging differs among individuals. Post mortem (PM) studies cannot help in assessment of brain tissue and its components. Moreover, PM cannot provide information on dynamic process of adult brain development, and its connection with brain structure and function. MRI helps in in-vivo measurements of the brain. It was realized that there is cortical thinning as age progresses. . Some studies of cortical thickness failed to replicate stability of the primary sensory regions (e.g., calcarine cortex) (Fjell et al., 2009; Salat et al., 2004) while others found that cortical thinning in frontal and parietal lobes exceed that of the temporal and occipital regions (Thambisetty et al., 2010). It is suggested that myelin is related to shrinkage in cerebral cortex or responsible for loss of cortical volume. MRI has helped evaluate leukoaraiosis which is a change in white matter integrity that is displayed on a T2-weighted MR image as a high signal intensity area. This area is defined as white matter hyperintensities (WMH) which depicts pathological processes such as ischemic lesions, gliosis, axonal degeneration, loss of myelin, microinfarcts, and expansion of perivascular spaces (de Leeuw et al., 2001; Pantoni, 1998). WHM is observed around the borders of the ventricles and deep in the subcortical WM regions. WHM is not present in health adults until the age of 50-55 (Hopkins et al., 2006). Further,

The hippocampus, which is the Latin word for seahorse, is named because of the shape it holds (Hippocampus). It is the neural center in the limbic system (Myers, 368). This system is located in the temporal lobe, close to the center of the brain. The hippocampus is essentially involved with the storage of long-term memory, especially of past knowledge and experiences (Hippocampus). The hippocampus is also vitally important to the creation of new memories, and without it humans would always be living in the past.

The OED defines multitasking as dealing with more than one task at the same time. The brain, in order to multitask, must receive both actions being performed, and dilute the information before processing. In order to read and listen to something at the same time, for an example, the brain must take the information being read by the eyes and the pulses coming from the ears, and reduce the frequency to keep both tasks going efficiently.

Have you ever forgotten something like where you put your keys or to pick up shampoo from the store? How would you feel if all of sudden you couldn’t remember newly learned things? This is what happens with Alzheimer’s patients, they have trouble remembering things they have just learned. There are several different things that someone who may be developing Alzheimer’s should be aware of.

Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking, behavior and other intellectual abilities significant enough to impede with a person’s daily life. Alzheimer's is not a typical part of aging, despite the most known leading factor is increased age. Most people with Alzheimer's are 65 and older, however, up to five percent of people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer's, which most often appears in a person in their 40s or 50s. Alzheimer's is a progressive disease which means that the symptoms of this certain disease gradually get more severe over time. In the early stages of this disease, memory loss is pretty mild, but in the late stages of Alzheimer's, individuals lose the capability to

The most common cause of dementia among mature adults is Alzheimer’s disease. “On a cognitive level, the principal hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease is memory decline, i.e. an impaired ability to acquire and remember new episodic information (El Haz,2016). Furthermore, one of the most cause of dementia in older adults is Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia similarly begins to interfere with the person’s daily

Advancing age is commonly associated with loss of memory. The inability to maintain both short term and long term memory is serious. Learning new things or remembering familiar words and names can be quite daunting.

"I lost my keys again," my mother exclaimed at dinner a few nights ago, "I really am getting old." This use of old age as a justification for memory deficits is extremely common. Many people relate old age with loss of memory and other neurobiological functions. Why is it that aging seems to go hand in hand with losing and forgetting things? Is there a neurobiological explanation for this phenomenon?