August 20, 2024
4 min read
Many Older People Maintain and Even Gain Cognitive Skills
Contrary to stereotypes of the doddering elderly, research shows that half of people older than age 70 stay mentally sharp
As I watched my parentsâ generation reach their 80s, I was struck by the dramatic difÂferÂences among them. A handful suffered from dementia, but many others remained cognitively sharpâeven if their knees and hips didnât quite keep up with the speed of their thoughts.
That observation runs counter to prejudices about aging, which were highÂlighted early in the 2024 presidential race between elderly candidates, but these biases permeate society in general. âThe belief about old people is that theyâre all kind of the same, theyâre doddering, and that aging is this steady downward slope,â says psychologist Laura CarÂstenÂsen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. That view, she says, is a great misunderstanding.
Instead research highlights the very differences I noticed. In our 40s, most people are cognitively similar. Divergences in cognition appear around age 60. By 80 âitâs quite dramatically splayed out,â says physician John Rowe, a professor of health policy and aging at Columbia Universityâs Mailman School of Public Health. Yes, there will be a group diminished by dementia and cognitive decline, but in general the 80-somethings âinclude the wisest people on the planet,â Carstensen says.
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Focusing on only those with poor brain health misses more than half the population. Rowe led research showing that in the six years after turning 75, about half of people showed little to no change in their physical, biological, hormonal and cognitive functioning, whereas the other half changed quite a lot. A longer-term study followed more than 2,000 individuals with an average age of 77 for up to 16 years. It showed that the three quarters who did not develop dementia showed little to no cognitive decline.
Some of this is related to genetics. Studies of successful aging have shown that genes account for 30 to 50 percent of physical and cognitive changes. But factors like a healthy way of life and good self-Âesteem are also consequential. So to an extent, Rowe says, âthis is really good news because it means that you are, in fact, in control of your old age.â
Research has also busted the myth that there is no upside to aging past 70 or so. âWe have found very clearly that there are things that improve with age,â Rowe says. The ability to resolve conflicts strengthens, for instance. Aging is also associated with more positive overall emotional well-being, which means older adults are more emotionally stable than younger adults, as well as better at regulating desires.
The normal aging process does bring changes to the brain, says Denise Park, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas. There is some shrinkage in the frontal lobes and some damage to neurons and their connections. Cognitive processing slows down. Yet that slowdown is usually on the order of milliseconds and doesnât always make a meaningful difference in daily life. And to compensate, older people activate more of the brain for tasks such as reading. âOlder adults will often forge additional pathwaysâ for particular activities, Park says. âThose pathways may not be as efficient as the pathways that younger adults use, but they nonetheless work.â
The clichĂ© that age brings wisdom is also backed up by science. âWhere older adults really shine is in their knowledge,â Park says. If you think of the brain as a computer, âthereâs a lot more on the hard disk,â she says. Older adults can draw on their experience and often have much better solutions to problems than younger adults. âFrequently that can give them an edge that is unexpected,â Park says.
That edge shows up in decision-making and conflict resolution. One study asked several hundred people to read stories about personal and group conflicts. The study, published in 2010 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, found that participants older than 60 were more likely to emphasize multiple perspectives, to compromise, and to recognize the limits of oneâs own knowledge. CarÂstensenâs observations reinforce these conclusions. âThe decisions that people make as they get older tend to be ones that take into consideration multiple factors and multiple stakeholders,â she says. Older adults are less likely than younger people to see the world in stark black-and-white terms. CarÂstenÂsen says that when responses in such studies are rated by observers who donât know how old participants are, the older peopleâs answers are seen as wiser.
Such wisdom may be the result of a gradual shift in perspective, Carstensen says. As we age and become more aware that time is short, we focus more on the positive. A meta-Âanalysis combining data on more than 7,000 older adults found they were significantly more likely than younger adults to lean toward the positive versus the negative when processing information.
The COVID pandemic has showcased this contrast. In a 2020 survey of nearly 1,000 adults, Carstensen and her colleagues found that the older adults were better able to cope with the stresses of the pandemic, despite being one of the groups at highest risk of health complications and death.
The fact is that different parts of the body can age at different rates in the same person. Someone who stumbles on stairs may do so because of creaky knees, not cognitive decline. If someone has a healthy brain, age alone might be considered a definite asset. âIf you were to take the kinds of decisions presidents make and compare them to the kinds of skills older people have versus younger people, I put my money on older people,â CarsÂtenÂÂsen says.
This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.