Question

What happens to memory as we age? How might this affect our quality of life?

Answer 1

What happens to memory as we age? How might this affect our quality of life?

As a person ages, his body will also be ageing and so would his brain. The part of brain which is responsible for carrying out executive functions is the frontal lobe, which helps a person in planning, in controlling their impulses and in proper functioning of the working memory. In the older ages, there is an increase in the memory lapse, though, memory lapses have been occurring in the younger days as well, people begin to grow more anxious about the memory lapses in old age. Some of the prominent changes in memory that occur are:

• Problems in learning new information.
• Processing becomes slower, as a result of which multi tasking becomes more difficult.
• There is a decline in strategic memory as a result of which a person may not be able to remember names as well.

These changes take place because of the following reasons:

• Shrinking of the brain mass,
• Decline in synaptic connections leading to thinning of the outer rigid brain surface.
• With age, there is a shrinking of the myelin sheath, resulting in the slow processing of brain and reductions in cognitive functions.
• Also, there is generation of lesser chemical messengers, with decrease in acetylcholine, dopamine and serotonin and also norepinephrine, which results in an increase in depression.

The quality of life is affected as a person may start forgetting things more frequently and may start getting anxious about it, leading to depression and loss of the normal functions.