Older brains slow due to greater experience, rather than cognitive decline

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-01/w-obs012114.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 21-Jan-2014
Contact: Ben Norman
Wiley

What happens to our cognitive abilities as we age? Traditionally it is thought that age leads to a steady deterioration of brain function, but new research in Topics in Cognitive Science argues that older brains may take longer to process ever increasing amounts of knowledge, and this has often been misidentified as declining capacity.

The study, led by Dr. Michael Ramscar of the University of Tuebingen, takes a critical look at the measures that are usually thought to show that our cognitive abilities decline across adulthood. Instead of finding evidence of decline, the team discovered that most standard cognitive measures are flawed, confusing increased knowledge for declining capacity.

-----

tags: cognition, aging, older, memory, elderly