

Very importantly: cognitive aging doesn’t involve neurodegeneration or significant damage to the brain’s neurons. And like many other age-associated changes in the body, cognitive aging tends to happen a little differently for every person, in part due to things like genetics, lifestyle and environmental factors.īut it’s not a disease. People sometimes have trouble understanding how cognitive aging is different from something more concerning, such as mild cognitive impairment, early Alzheimer’s disease, or other memory-related conditions they may have heard about.Ī good explanation of the difference is available here, in the Cognitive Aging Action Guide published by the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), which issued a fantastic report on cognitive aging in 2015.īasically, cognitive aging is the brain’s version of your body parts working less efficiently due to age, rather than due to disease or serious damage. How does cognitive aging differ from a disease or more concerning changes in mental function?

Cognitive aging also helps older adults become more optimistic and emotionally resilient, as I explain later in the article.īy better understanding cognitive aging, you’ll be better equipped to understand the older adults in your life, whether that is yourself or an older loved one. Yes, things tend to work a little slower and less well, but on the other hand older adults can often compensate by drawing on their experience. Which means they might feel reluctant to learn more about this.īut the news is not all bad. This can be discouraging news to many people. Just as your 75-year-old self can’t run as fast as your 30-year old self, your 75-year-old brain will, for the most part, not think as quickly either. As you’ll see, most mental processes become less nimble with time. Practical takeaways and what you can do.
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This is even true of the brain, which is part of why it becomes more common to experience a “ tip of the tongue” moment as one gets older. It’s annoying but unfortunately true: most parts of the body work less well as one gets older and older.
