Sharp Memory in Old Age - Biological and Behavioral Aspects

Authors

Narayana Rao

There are certain old persons who perform memory tasks that a fifty year old person performs with ease. Even at the age of eighty, they can recall all the details of a story, thirty minutues later.

Biological Aspects

Researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine are doing research on the sharp memory of some of the old people.

The researchers found that the brains of old people with good memories had far fewer fibre-like tangles than the brains of those who had normally memories associated with their age.

The principal investigator of the study, Changiz Geula said that the result is interesting It brings out the fact in some persons there is resistance to the formation of tangles.

In an earlier study in 2003, it was found by researchers of the university that accumulation of neurofibrillary tau tangles not only causes the memory loss that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease but also may be responsible for the memory deficits seen in normal aging and in some cases of mild cognitive impairment.

Behavioral Aspects

In the results of a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med 2003;348:2508-16), the authors of the study concluded that participation in leisure activities is associated with a reduced risk of dementia (memory loss).