Appreciate the Thinking Skills That Can Remain the Same or Even Improve as You Get Older

Between memory lapses and noticeable struggles with focus and decision- making, you might think that age brings on only nega­tive changes to thinking skills. But that’s not always the case. In fact, you may have noticed that while you might need an extra mo­ment or two to find the word you’re looking for or feel overwhelmed having to learn to use a new piece of tech­nology, plenty of thinking skills seem unchanged from years ago.

“Not everything is bad news with cognition and aging, as there are several thinking abilities that can remain stable and even improve with age,” says Massachusetts General Hospital neuropsychologist Marta Gonzalez Catalan, PhD.

“Indeed, crystallized abilities, such as vocabulary and knowledge of general information, stay unchanged and can even get better, as these are skills that come from previous learning and past experiences that have been overlearned and well­practiced throughout our lives.”

Types of Memory

As you get older, it is normal to experience some cognitive difficulties, like overall slowness or occa­sional forgetfulness. This decline is associated with changes to certain brain structures and to the brain cells (neurons) themselves.

“Certain parts of neurons wear down, including recep­tors and myelin sheaths,

In addition, reading skills, vocabulary, and abstract reason­

ing can remain robust throughout your life, though it’s important to

use these skills regularly. Like any other aspect of health, thinking

skills fall into the “use it or lose it” category.

Focus on Your Health

Age isn’t the only thing that

affects memory and other think­

ing skills. Sleep, medication use, chronic illness, stress, and other fac­tors can get in the way of learning and recalling information. Therefore, it’s important to make it a priority to manage the factors that are within your control.

“Though there is not a ‘magic pill’ that will help us age better, there are

several factors that have been linked to cognitive health as we age, and, ultimately, implementing these changes into our day-to-day life could help us improve our functioning,”

Dr. Catalan says.

She recommends following these lifestyle behaviors to support physical

and cognitive health:

• Taking care of your physical and mental health, such as having regu­lar medical follow-ups, managing stress, and treating any moodsymptoms

• Controlling cardiovascular risk fac­tors, such as diabetes or high

blood pressure

• Practicing good sleep hygiene, such as creating a nightly routine, limit­ing caffeine after noon, limiting “screen time” before bed, limiting naps, going to bed at the same

hour, limiting rich food before bed, sleeping in a darkened and quiet room, and leaving adequate time

for seven to eight hours of sleep

• Being socially and mentally active by engaging in stimulating activi­ties that you enjoy and are a little

bit challenging but not stressful, such as taking a class, reading, doing puzzles, or volunteering

• Limiting alcohol intake and refraining from smoking

which are essential components to enable communication between neu­rons,” Dr. Catalan explains. “As a re­sult, it slows down the speed of com­munication or may not even function as well as it once did. Additionally, some brain areas shrink in size, meaning losing brain cells and the connections between them. For ex­ample, a reduction of the hippocam­pus, which is an essential part of learning and memory, can result in difficulties encoding new information into memory or retrieving previously learned material.”

Not all types of memory are equally affected by age-related cognitive

changes. Declarative memory, for ex­ample, refers to the ability to con­sciously recall information about facts and events. Episodic and semantic memory are the two types of declara­tive memory. Episodic memory is the ability to remember events and experi­ences such as recalling your last vaca­tion or where you parked your car this morning. Unfortunately, it’s vulnerable to the negative effects of aging. But se­mantic memory, which involves gen­eral factual knowledge such as remem­bering what a phone is and how it works, is a type of memory that can ac­tually grow stronger over time. How­ever, individuals with advanced de­mentia can lose semantic memory, too.

Nondeclarative memory, which op­erates outside of the person’s aware­ness, also remains intact across the

life span. Procedural memory is a form of nondeclarative memory that refers to the recollection of cognitive and motor skills involved in particu­lar tasks. Knowing how to ride a bike, type on the computer, or tie your shoes are examples of procedural memory. Other skills that can remain stable over time include some basic visuospatial skills such as object per­ception (also known as object recog­nition), such as being able to identify familiar faces or look at a machine or vehicle and know how it operates

or moves.

© Anchiy | Getty Images

• Doing regular exercise

• Eating healthy foods, with a regular intake of appropriately portioned

meals. Even with a strict regimen of healthy habits, memory and other thinking skills can seem strong one day, while the next day you may struggle to stay on task and keep track of even simple responsibilities. It’s important not to let the ups and downs of your cognitive performance get to you.

It’s also imperative that you never adopt an “it’s too late to make a differ­ence” attitude or assume that memory, attention, organization, and other skills can’t be improved or approached differently in order to achieve the results you want. In fact, the brain is a remarkably pliant organ, and you have spent a lifetime adjust­ing to change.

Takeaway

Knowing that some cognitive skills can remain robust throughout your life may not make things less frustrat­ing when you’ve forgotten someone’s birthday or you can’t remember where you put your keys. But to help maintain a positive outlook, which is also something that supports healthy cognition, remind yourself that much of the knowledge, skills, and talents you’ve developed over a lifetime will be with you for a long time to come.

If reading still comes easily to you, catch up on the great novels you’ve always intended to read. If other intel­lectual pursuits interest you, then go after them with enthusiasm. You can do more than you realize.

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