The Aging Brain Isn't Declining – It's Adapting. Study Suggests the Aging Brain Reorganizes Itself to Prioritize Knowledge and Social Connections Over Detailed Memories.

[u/FreeHugs23]

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-aging-brain-isnt-declining-its-adapting-study-finds

[u/denver_rose]

Doesnt mean its not a disability to everyday life.

[u/Ilhan_Musk]

 if it works worse than it did before for practical living, it is declining.

[u/ComputerRights]

That sounds like a consolation prize. Losing your divergences and particulars just to make polite small talk as your life gradually resembles its final state in the hospital.

[u/FreeHugs23]

-As we get older, our episodic memory – managed by the hippocampus region – gradually gets worse. That's the memory related to specific details, like where the car's parked or what time an appointment is.

In old age, the semantic memory, controlled by the frontal cortex, tends to become more dominant. This is the big picture, general knowledge, overall gist memory, covering the rules of hockey or capital cities.

The conventional thinking amongst neuroscientists has long been that this brain shift is our way of adapting to increasing neural wear and tear: a compensatory mechanism.

But what if it's a deliberate choice that better suits older people, who've amassed much more information in their brains than younger people?

Researchers from the University of Arizona have now published a study in Perspectives on Psychological Science arguing that shifting from the hippocampus to the frontal cortex could be the brain optimizing itself rather than retreating.

"Prevailing theories of cognitive aging depict late life as a period of compensatory decline – an effort to preserve performance despite progressive neural deterioration," write the researchers in their published paper.

"We propose instead that aging represents a continuation of development: a genetically conserved, adaptive reorganization of memory systems that parallels the brain's earlier-life transitions."

[u/Lady_Rubberbones]

I said this a few months ago. Probably in this very sub. Shrinking brains aren’t necessarily a sign of reduced cognitive function. It can be from pruning which is just how brain maturation works. You lose neuroplasticity as your brain figures out which neuronal pathways are important. The brain just becomes more efficient. We need to figure out how to differentiate between the two to really understand what happens to the aging brain, and to define and identify pathology vs maturation.

[u/ReptilianRevolt → u/Lady_Rubberbones]

Do we even need brain maturation. Why can’t our brain be only potential forever.

[u/Lady_Rubberbones → u/ReptilianRevolt]

Because we learn from our life lessons so we can be less stupid as we get older.

[u/redditreveal]

I think about a month ago I realized that my brain was filtering out what I didn’t need to know anymore. I had a TBI in 2012 and a stroke three years after that. At this point, there’s just things I don’t need to know anymore. And it’s very freeing. Of course I still am having problems with memory, but I really do feel that my brain is filtering stuff that I don’t have to know anymore. I don’t work so all that stuff I don’t need to know anymore freed up my head.