[Marxism] Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain

[Bonnie Weinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain
By SARA REISTAD-LONG
May 20, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/health/research/20brai.html?ref=health

When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they
tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of
studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data
and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term
benefit.

The studies are analyzed in a new edition of a neurology book, ³Progress in
Brain Research.²

Some brains do deteriorate with age. Alzheimer¹s disease, for example,
strikes 13 percent of Americans 65 and older. But for most aging adults, the
authors say, much of what occurs is a gradually widening focus of attention
that makes it more difficult to latch onto just one fact, like a name or a
telephone number. Although that can be frustrating, it is often useful.

³It may be that distractibility is not, in fact, a bad thing,² said Shelley
H. Carson, a psychology researcher at Harvard whose work was cited in the
book. ³It may increase the amount of information available to the conscious
mind.²

For example, in studies where subjects are asked to read passages that are
interrupted with unexpected words or phrases, adults 60 and older work much
more slowly than college students. Although the students plow through the
texts at a consistent speed regardless of what the out-of-place words mean,
older people slow down even more when the words are related to the topic at
hand. That indicates that they are not just stumbling over the extra
information, but are taking it in and processing it.

When both groups were later asked questions for which the out-of-place words
might be answers, the older adults responded much better than the students.

³For the young people, it¹s as if the distraction never happened,² said an
author of the review, Lynn Hasher, a professor of psychology at the
University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the Rotman Research
Institute. ³But for older adults, because they¹ve retained all this extra
data, they¹re now suddenly the better problem solvers. They can transfer the
information they¹ve soaked up from one situation to another.²

Such tendencies can yield big advantages in the real world, where it is not
always clear what information is important, or will become important. A
seemingly irrelevant point or suggestion in a memo can take on new meaning
if the original plan changes. Or extra details that stole your attention,
like others¹ yawning and fidgeting, may help you assess the speaker¹s real
impact.

³A broad attention span may enable older adults to ultimately know more
about a situation and the indirect message of what¹s going on than their
younger peers,² Dr. Hasher said. ³We believe that this characteristic may
play a significant role in why we think of older people as wiser.²

In a 2003 study at Harvard, Dr. Carson and other researchers tested
students¹ ability to tune out irrelevant information when exposed to a
barrage of stimuli. The more creative the students were thought to be,
determined by a questionnaire on past achievements, the more trouble they
had ignoring the unwanted data. A reduced ability to filter and set
priorities, the scientists concluded, could contribute to original thinking.

This phenomenon, Dr. Carson said, is often linked to a decreased activity in
the prefrontal cortex. Studies have found that people who suffered an injury
or disease that lowered activity in that region became more interested in
creative pursuits.

Jacqui Smith, a professor of psychology and research professor at the
Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, who was not
involved in the current research, said there was a word for what results
when the mind is able to assimilate data and put it in its proper place ?
wisdom.

³These findings are all very consistent with the context we¹re building for
what wisdom is,² she said. ³If older people are taking in more information
from a situation, and they¹re then able to combine it with their
comparatively greater store of general knowledge, they¹re going to have a
nice advantage.² 


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