Older Brains Make Good Use of 'Useless' Information

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100120161237.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2010) — A new study has found promising evidence that the older brain's weakened ability to filter out irrelevant information may actually give aging adults a memory advantage over their younger counterparts.

A long line of research has already shown that aging is associated with a decreased ability to tune out irrelevant information. Now scientists at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute have demonstrated that when older adults "hyper-encode" extraneous information -- and they typically do this without even knowing they're doing it -- they have the unique ability to "hyper-bind" the information; essentially tie it to other information that is appearing at the same time.

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"We found that older brains are not only less likely to suppress irrelevant information than younger brains, but they can link the relevant and irrelevant pieces of information together and implicitly transfer this knowledge to subsequent memory tasks," said Campbell.

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"This could be a silver lining to aging and distraction," said Dr. Hasher, senior scientist on the study. "Older adults with reduced attentional regulation seem to display greater knowledge of seemingly extraneous co-occurrences in the environment than younger adults. As this type of knowledge is thought to play a critical role in real world decision- making, older adults may be the wiser decision-makers compared to younger adults because they have picked up so much more information."

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