Relationship Between Age And Cognitive Functions

As adults age their executive functioning start to slow down. The structural changes in the prefrontal cortex

Cognitive aging is the term to describe changes in cognition with age. While Salthouse (2004) found that with cognitive aging comes cognitive decline regardless of the individual, Hayden and partners (2011) found that most (65%) elderly persons showed slow decline that does not substantially affect abilities, 27% experienced moderate decline, and only 8% showed substantial cognitive decline. These new findings show that in fact there may be individual variability when it comes to cognitive aging. One factor shown to affect cognitive aging is race (Glymour and Manly, 2008). Thus, in this paper we will review and analyze findings pertaining to cognitive aging as related by race to better understand this relationship and will also discuss suggestions for future research.

What are people willing to do to maintain a healthy mind and body? A former emperor of china, Qin Shi Huang, killed himself trying to live forever by consuming age-stopping mercury pills. In the 1400's Pope Innocent VIII believed by transfusing three young boys blood into himself he would absorb their youth, he died in the process. In the 1800's Leonard Jones ran for president with the promise to achieve immortality, he believed this would be accomplished through prayer and fasting, later that year pneumonia led to his death.

Quadagno (2014) discusses ways cognitive abilities differ from young-adults, middle-old adults and oldest old adults. Cognitive decline can also be affected by conditions such as stroke, depression, diabetes, auditory, and vision problems. Older adults may also encounter age related cognitive decline in their daily lives. Cognitive abilities such as processing speed, episodic memory, working memory and dual task processing are abilities that researchers are aiming to improve in older adults (Basak, et al, 2008; Quadagno, 2014).

Aging is often associated with gradual cognitive decline which can significantly affect an individual’s quality of life. In Australia, 110, 000 people identified as suffering from dementia (ABS, 2012). A relatively new intervention that aims to combat this cognitive decline, involves the use of computerised brain training programs. Many studies have shown that cognitive training can improve cognitive function in older adults (Peretz, et al., 2011, p. 91). Having said that, there here have been mixed results regarding the effectiveness of improving overall cognitive function using computerised methods. There is evidence to suggest slight improvements in some areas of cognitive function. However, there has not been enough conclusive results

Evidence for a general slowing factor come from two observations: evidence from the age-related slowing across a broad range of cognitive tasks and the significant amount of shared variance across those cognitive tasks (Salthouse, 1996). Furthermore, the processing-speed theory states that the relationship between age and processing speed mediated the relationship between age and other measure of cognitive functioning such as quality of the outcome. Evidence from statistical analysis revealed significant relationships between age and perceptual speed and perceptual speed and decision accuracy, but did not reveal a significant relationship between age and decision accuracy. These findings support the mediating role of processing speed between age and decision accuracy (Salthouse, 1996). Empirical evidence has also shown the elimination of age-related differences in other areas of cognition when controlling for processing speed (e.g., Henninger, Madden, & Huettel,

A decline in cognitive functioning occurs during the middle and late adult years. The ensuing decades indicates that there is a general pattern of change in cognitive function across the late adult years, with consistent declines in perceptual motor skills, concept formation, complex memory tasks, ability to deal with novel tasks that are complex, and tasks that require quick decisions.

The brain ages just as our body ages; its ability to function and physical appearance change over time. Physical changes to the brain often include shrinking and death of neurons, decrease in neurotransmitter synthesis and signaling, and decrease in cortical thickness. The hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, and thalamus experience the most significant variances in the aging brain. These three regions can account for up 25-100% of the cognitive variance seen when comparing aged and younger individuals. Additionally, the brain can have losses of up to 50% of myelinated

Once an individual has reached a certain age everything begins to change cognitively. For example, the memory is not as proficient, language comprehension skills decline, and regular life function is hard. It is hard for people in late adulthood to maintain regular function as they once had before. According to Berk, “In late adulthood, personal goals ---while still including gains --- increasingly focus on maintaining abilities and preventing losses” (Berk, 2017, p. 595). Older adults often tend to think something happened when in reality it did not. Their memory cannot contain as much information as before making it possible for older adults to imagine things happening. They also struggle with their vocabulary. It is hard for them to find

There are also cognitive changes during middle adulthood. There is a mixed pattern of positive and negative changes in cognitive abilities. Processing speed starts to decrease during this time period however crystallized thought does not decline until older age (pg. 456). Working memory begins to decline however semantic memory continues to increase as we learning throughout our older years (ph 456). Usually most memory decline is during older age and can be attributed to Alzheimer’s disease of dementia.

Many studies have been broad, studying the vocabulary, reasoning, memory, and speed of the person, but zoning in on one thing specific may lead to further understanding. Studying the effects of cognitive aging in relation to memory possibly will open so many more areas of study. Studying specific age groups could also be helpful when attempting to understand cognitive aging as a whole. Learning about how speed, memory, vocabulary, and reasoning all work within a child, 10-15 years old, might be helpful when comparing that data to that information of an adult. between 50-60 years

First, Individuals should learn how cognitive mapping is an important human function. This function can be strengthen or weakened by the strength of the brain. Cognitive mapping comes from the images that we see around us every day. This allows us to see and envision things when they are not insight it is like taking a mental picture with your mind. According to (Sandler J, 1962). Most of human action is based on habits. They are not pondered but executed automatically, based on experience and knowledge about the (social) environment and the individual's capacities. For example every morning many individuals in the United States get up to go work every morning this means that most people take specific routes to work every morning but many

In fact, cognitive abilities gradually decline as time progresses. From the observation, it was seen that a considerable number of the seniors in the room were not able to remember or recall certain names of the volunteers. A physiological explanation for this involves the neurons of the brain. As age progresses, the fibers of the neurons’ axons twist to form neurofibrillary tangles (Kail & Cavanuagh, 2016). The causes of neurofibrillary tangles are unknown; however, the structure of the axons make it for difficult for signals to be transmitted and relayed from neuron to neuron. In late adulthood, information processing speed declines because of how the central nervous system has been deteriorating over time (Shaban, 2017). Some examples of illnesses that illustrate this process are dementia and Alzheimer’s. In both illnesses, elderly individuals are not able to store, process, and retrieve information as quickly as younger individuals. Seniors take a longer time to learn and retain new information. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 15% of old aged people suffer from mental disorders (Choolayil, 2017). The quality of cognitive abilities can either be maintained or declined depending on how frequently the individual “exercises” his or her brain. Seniors can practice and hone their critical and abstract thinking skills. The observed seniors had the opportunity to keep their minds active by participating in activities such as reading books, doing arts and crafts, or playing crossword or puzzle games. If the brain is continually inclined to think and discover, the likelihood of developing mental disorders or cognitive impairment

Cognitive impairment is a public health problem occurred in the elderly. In this chapter, we discuss the research results, consisting of prevalence and factors associated with cognitive impairment in the elderly as well as the consistency between the tools used for screening cognitive impairment include the modified IQCODE and MMSE-Thai 2002 by comparing the research results with previous studies.

Memory is how we as human’s store past events in our minds to retrieve them at a later time. Our ability to remember and retrieve these past memories can be likened to how a computer functions, such as in the information processing approach. This approach gives emphasis to the basic practice of remembering, and the steps involved in our mental functionality (Sigelman & Rider, 2014). As humans, our memory and ability to recall information naturally declines as we age, and there are many possible reasons for this declined ability, such as not having to rehearse information as often after retirement, or the lack of mental exercise and regular maintenance done for the brain.