The brain is known to be the most important organ in our body. It is responsible for all the systems in our body and their tasks. What makes our brains special? Considering that the cerebral cortex is the area of the brain responsible for higher cognitive tasks like thinking, language, and consciousness, it’s easy to argue that our abnormally large cerebral cortex is what makes us special. As we age, all our body systems slowly decrease including the brain. Brain development doesn’t stop when you’re young. You keep growing cells and connections, but decline starts earlier than you think. Brain aging is somehow inevitable as it affects every brain. Let’s try to understand how the brain changes with age.
1- PHYSICAL CHANGES
First off, some physical changes happen in the brain. Studies have found that the brain loses about 5% of its weight every decade after the age of 40. It is believed that a combination of factors, such as neurons dying, or other health conditions might be responsible. In particular, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, brain injury, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis are most commonly associated with shrinking of the brain. In addition, it might be hearing loss, especially in the higher frequencies.
2- REFLEXES SLOW
As we age, our reflexes slow. We walk and act slower. We even talk slower. Our memory starts to weaken, especially short-term memory which is important to learn new things. You sometimes search for words, but you use the wrong ones. You might forget common words when speaking or finding your keys can become a complex task. Meditation can be a solution to help you with these mistakes.
3- PROCESSING SPEED
The processing speed of your brain is equal to how fast or slow your brain is able to process information and come up with a response. The processing speed has an effect on brain functions. When you age the speed of processing slows down. The decrease can start in the early stages of adulthood so the processing speed at the age of 70 and 80 is by far slower than the processing speed of someone in their 20s.
4- MEMORY
When you age, many aspects of your memory start to decrease. In fact, every person has many types of memories, and when you age many of them start to decline. These types include; the episodic memory, the working memory, the prospective memory, alongside others.
5- ATTENTION
Just like a memory one person has different types of attention. Among the attention types that are affected are the following:
- The divided attention which is the ability to multitask and manage many tasks at the same time
- Sustained attention is the ability to stay focused on one thing for a long period of time.
- Selective attention which is the ability to focus on something when there are some distractions around you
All these types of attention get worse with aging, only sustained attention is the only one that does not get affected very badly.
