Ageing & Memory

Ageing & Memory

1. Elderly is a term that refers to those aged 65+, the volume of those classed as elderly is predicted to rise by over 50% in the next 25 years as the pop. of the UK gets older.

   • However, a proportion will also develop serious memory loss leading to disorders such as Alzheimer's which currently holds no cure.
     • By 2050, there will be more ppl aged 60+ than the younger generation, with little or no infrastructure to provide long-term health care or public social security - leading to increase in dependency ration- strain on society (Harper, 2014)

2. memory loss is the most frequent complaint by the elderly

   • STM
     • Craik (1986) found decrease in STM is not dramatic - digit span reduces 6.6 to 5.8 between ages 19-74. Also found for word span.
   • LTM
     • Baddeley et al., (2015) found for LTM, magnitude of decline varies depending on nature of memory task and method of testing retention.
       • implicit learning & memory involve range of different processes which may explain why the effects of ageing are not all the same on memory.
   • Deficits found to be most pronounced when WM maintenance systems are taxed by high load tasks or interruption.
     • Craik (1986) found minimal drop in memory span for unrelated words in elderly, difference that increased substantially when the task changed so that ppts had to recall words in alphabetical order. Crucial difference being the need to hold and manipulate material simultaneously, making full use of WM.

3. The hippocampus, crucial for memory, loses 20-30% of its neurons by the age of 80, reflecting a slow decline which subsequently accelerates.

   • Basis for the decline held within the EF - responsible for control attention, manipulation of info, speed of processing & mental 'felxibility'.
     • Cognitive changes with the advancing age may be 'costly', forcing retirement from demanding careers and jeopardising independent living.

4. semantic memory

   • along with STM, does not decline with age it is maintained. Things like knowledge of historical facts have seen to actually increase with age.
   • episodic memory
     • has seen to decline with age. Pauls, petermann & Lepach (2013) looked at gender/age diff. in episodic memory among diff. task types. R -> support decline in EM and WM measures with increasing age. Women better auditory men better visual EM - may support specified targeted memory retention programmes for EM.

5. pathological ageing

   • occurs in form of Alzheimer's disease which is a progressive memory loss disease that involves significant physical, cognitive and social decline. Multiple sits of brain damaged including frontal and medial temporal resulting in major types of damage.
     • Neurofibrilary tangles (twisted protein fibres inside the neurons)
     • Senile plaques (patches of degenerated cell tissue)
     • Alzheimer's patients engage in multi-tasking - performance impaired - issues with EF and retrieval problems suggesting hippocampus deficits.
       • when cognitive decline becomes very advanced - Dysexecutive Syndrome - disorders of EF among most frequent cog. deficits, observed many diseases
         • Godefroy et al., (2010) parkingson/stroke/AZ - cognitive (73%) and behavioural (65%) dysexecutive syndrome most frequent in AZ disease.
   • dementia comes in different forms, most commonly caused by Alzheimers
     • vascular dementia (2nd most common type, reduction of blood flow - can happen after stroke/blood vessel damage.
     • Dementia with Lewy bodies (3rd most common, effects 15%, protein clumps build up inside nerve cells in brain.
     • Fronto-temporal dementia (rare, effects 5%, damage to cells in fronto and temporal lobes, region involved in personality, emotions, control, cognition,
     • Lambert et al., (2017) utilised way to accuratly predict preclinical vascular dementia using MRI. found reduced grey matter density in left striatum adn hippocampus, more white matter hyper intensities in frontal white matter. results able to predict 73% of cases that developed dementia within 5 years.

6. improvement?

   • video games, ACTIVE, exercise, aducanumb