How Age-Related Brain Changes Affect Attention and Therefore Memory

Like the rest of the body, the brain changes with age. Processing speed slows, and the ability to learn new information becomes more difficult than it did in our younger years. The power to focus and not succumb to distractions also takes a hit as we get older. So what exactly is going on in the brain to cause these changes, and is there anything we can do about it?

The inevitable loss of brain cells as we age contributes to a decline in several brain functions, including the ability to multitask and focus without getting distracted by background noise or other factors. © libre de droit | Getty Images

“Part of the healthy brain aging process does include losing millions of neurons (brain cells) that are not replaced,” explains Alessandro Biffi, MD, Director of the Aging and Brain Health Research Group at Massachusetts General Hospital. “This is because the brain is a unique organ in terms of possessing very limited options for repair and regeneration, unlike, for example, skin or bone tissues.”

He adds that all brain systems have redundancies, which are the ways in which neurons that have one function may take on a different function if a part of the brain is injured or no longer able to carry out its usual responsibilities. For example, in stroke patients, if the part of the brain that controls speech is damaged, other brain cells not normally involved with speech may be recruited to do the job.

But even with the brain’s remarkable ability to recover and carry on, Dr. Biffi notes that most brain functions, including attention, decline later in life. He also explains that health problems, insufficient sleep, certain medications, and stresses that can accompany aging (isolation, financial woes, the loss of loved ones, etc.) all can conspire to make concentrating problematic. You can mitigate some of those changes by maintaining good health, but some declines are hard to avoid.

All Attention Is Not the Same

Of course, as with most issues concerning the brain, even the concept of paying attention is rather complicated. There are essentially four types of attention:

Selective: The ability to block out potential distractions and focus on one thing. Think of having a conversation in a crowded restaurant. If you have trouble tuning out the other conversations, you can either avoid crowds whenever possible, or do the opposite and actually practice focusing on your lunch partner while noise and chatter swirl around you. It’s like playing the piano. Practice makes all the difference.

Divided: Doing two or more things at once, such as cooking dinner while talking on the phone. Practice may help here, too, but because this uses up a lot of brain power, it’s an aspect of attention that really suffers with age. The better approach may be to compartmentalize your day into one task at a time.

Executive: The ability to plan and complete a project while monitoring your progress along the way. Executive attention is what you use when you make progress toward a specific goal. Using lists, planners, reminders and other tools can help your executive attention skills.

Sustained: The ability to focus on one thing for a long period of time. Unlike executive attention, which is involved in multi-step tasks, sustained attention is used for a single purpose, such as reading a book or painting a picture. Practice helps, though this is one type of attention that tends to remain strong throughout life.

“Different aspects of attention are indeed differently affected because they require different amounts of ‘brain computational power,’” Dr. Biffi says. “Divided attention, also known as multitasking, is a fairly intensive process and declines noticeably with aging. On the contrary, sustained attention on a single task, such as prolonged reading, is less demanding and tends to continue to be much more efficient later in life.”

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