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Brains of elderly slow because they know so much
Telegragh (UK) ^ | 1-20-2014 | Sarah Knapton

Posted on 01/20/2014 2:51:32 PM PST by Sir Napsalot

The brains of older people only appear to slow down because they have so much information to compute, much like a full-up hard drive, scientists believe.

Older people do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains, scientists believe.

Much like a computer struggles as the hard drive gets full up, so to (sic) do humans take longer to access information, it has been suggested.

Researchers say this slowing down it is not the same as cognitive decline.

“The human brain works slower in old age,” said Dr. Michael Ramscar, “but only because we have stored more information over time

“The brains of older people do not get weak. On the contrary, they simply know more.”

A team at Tübingen University in Germany programmed a computer to read a certain amount each day and learn new words and commands.

When the researchers let a computer “read” only so much, its performance on cognitive tests resembled that of a young adult.

But if the same computer was exposed to the experiences we might encounter over a lifetime – with reading simulated over decades – its performance now looked like that of an older adult.

Often it was slower, but not because its processing capacity had declined. Rather, increased “experience” had caused the computer’s database to grow, giving it more data to process – which takes time.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: aging; brain; deepsleep; dimentia; elderly; elderlymemory; elderlysleep; knowledge; memory; michaelramscar; sarahknapton; seniors
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To: bunkerhill7

Interesting...I have always used my system for remembering a grocery list. I have to run in the store and get specific items. I memorize the number of items I must get...lets say 5 items. That way I can then recall those specific items along with the usual stuff I shop for. Works for me.


81 posted on 01/20/2014 5:38:02 PM PST by Conservative4Ever (Happy New Year 2014)
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To: Marcella

Hi Marcella. Thx for sharing this. What a great story-and a great lesson. I’m 49. Will be 50 in April. I am going to remember this and take your advice to heart.


82 posted on 01/20/2014 5:40:12 PM PST by murrie (Mark Levin: Prosecuting stupidity nightly.)
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To: Paladin2
So liberals don't get any slower with age?
83 posted on 01/20/2014 5:48:51 PM PST by Colorado Doug (Now I know how the Indians felt to be sold out for a few beads and trinkets)
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To: Marcella

Yep, the brain is for APPLYING information, not just storing and accessing it.


84 posted on 01/20/2014 5:52:14 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: Sir Napsalot

85 posted on 01/20/2014 5:55:19 PM PST by Daffynition ("If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." ~ Henry Ford)
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To: M Kehoe
No wonder my head looks like Barry Bonds head after 10 yrs of steroid use.

I had a buddy who had an interesting theory along those lines. When people commented on his thinning hair, he would patiently explain that he's acquired so much knowledge that his head has expanded and the hair has to spread out over a larger area giving the illusion of hair loss.

The explanation seemed perfectly reasonable to all of us middle-aged guys there. When his children and grandchildren objected, it was quickly decided by us old guys that their brains just hadn't expanded enough to grasp complex theories.

86 posted on 01/20/2014 6:01:10 PM PST by CommerceComet (No more GOP-e. Cruz to victory in 2016.)
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To: Nonsense Unlimited

As good as any ‘story’. I am sticking with it too.


87 posted on 01/20/2014 6:03:52 PM PST by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: Sir Napsalot

I do not believe it is the volume of information stored that slows our thinking in older age. The “retrieval” time of the brain is faster than any hard drive, and even the “slower” time of the best hard drives - when they are so “full” is not a great noticeable weakness.

I think there is something else going on.

The brain is a “living machine” and the heart of it is the cells that perform the mental and related neurological (”communications between cells”) functions. Over time, bilogical cell health and repair is less good in old age than in youth.

I have not heard medical professionals refer to it the following way, but I believe there are mechanisms or a basic mechanism that helps the brain “catalog” (like writing an index/map) to whatever information it has stored. Just as in our machine computers, catalogues & indexes makes information retrieval faster - faster than having to hunt for a needle in a haystack until it’s found.

Like with our memor lapses as we get older, so it is with our “slower” thinking, I believe, in that the mental cataloging sysyem does work as well as it used to.

The idea was first told to me in what a friend was given as a joke - “it’s not that we lost some of our memories; it’s just that our retrieval system does not work as well”. But I believe that that is no joke, it’s probably the real issue.

When we can understand the mechanism of HOW the brain makes a catalogue/index of it’s information stores, I think we would be further along in solving issues of “slow thinking” and memory lapses in the elderly.


88 posted on 01/20/2014 6:06:39 PM PST by Wuli
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To: Sir Napsalot
told ya so !
89 posted on 01/20/2014 6:34:56 PM PST by tomkat
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To: GOP Poet

Keeping it alive with the world going by my window. Loving this nap!


90 posted on 01/20/2014 6:38:28 PM PST by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: tomkat

don’t do that ... lol


91 posted on 01/20/2014 6:39:08 PM PST by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: Sacajaweau
             


(that's a 'been there, done that .. often' rofl !)

92 posted on 01/20/2014 6:41:17 PM PST by tomkat
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To: Sir Napsalot

I thought humans typically only use about 10% of the brain? What the heck does the rest do, or potentially COULD do.


93 posted on 01/20/2014 6:46:39 PM PST by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Yeah, that’s it.


94 posted on 01/20/2014 6:48:13 PM PST by rsobin
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To: mountainlion

I would guess that you just take them out of the cabinet and throw them out.


95 posted on 01/20/2014 6:48:53 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (The War on Drugs has been used as an excuse to steal your rights. Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

I’ve been hypothesizing this to my kids for a while. I just knew it was true!


96 posted on 01/20/2014 6:50:28 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: BfloGuy

The article had some promise until I read that ridiculous part about “simulating” the brain with a hard disc drive. What a joke.

I installed an SSD on my MacBook Pro a few months back and the first thing you learn is you can toss all your defrag software. You simply don’t defrag a solid state drive because the seek time is close to zero — you don’t have to move a big, high inertia magnetic head all over the disc.


97 posted on 01/20/2014 6:58:56 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ETL

“only use about 10% of the brain? What the heck does the rest do”

It does the important things, the things that the 10% can neither comprehend nor conceive.


98 posted on 01/20/2014 7:01:13 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: Paladin2

LOLOL! Unbelievable! First they tell you to keep your mind agile by doing puzzles and metal gymnastics, then they tell you your brain slows due to too much information. Me thinks their brains are totally fried.


99 posted on 01/20/2014 7:12:31 PM PST by sheikdetailfeather (Yuri Bezmenov (KGB Defector) - "Kick The Communists Out of Your Govt. & Don't Accept Their Goodies.")
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
My brain is acting like Kelly Bundy’s! For every new fact, I lose an old fact. It’s full to the top!

That was a great episode

100 posted on 01/20/2014 7:22:56 PM PST by NonValueAdded (It's not the penalty, it's the lack of coverage on 1 Jan. Think about it.)
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