Skill Sets Stay Same As We Age

Are you a whiz at finishing crossword puzzles, but mystified by math? Researchers have assumed aging would eventually equalize your cognitive skills at a lower level.

But a new study suggests the elderly actually retain the same "differentiation" of skills, even as their mental faculties decline.

In other words, you'll still be better at crossword puzzles than at math when you're 85, but your skills at both won't be as keen as they used to be.

"In a nutshell, just as older people retain their distinct personality traits in old age, they retain their distinct strengths and weakness in cognitive abilities," says study co-author Kaarin Anstey, a researcher at the Australian National University.

It's no secret that elderly humans often aren't as quick-witted as they were in their younger years. "Most have better general knowledge and vocabulary than when they were younger," Anstey says. "However, it would be very rare to maintain the level of performance on measures of complex reasoning, memory and mental speed that one had when one was a young adult."

In simple terms, the aging process affects the brain just as it does other parts of the body, says Denise C. Park, a professor of psychology and science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Just as hearts and livers work less efficiently, the brain deteriorates -- faster in some people, slower in others.

"As humans, we want to think the brain has this unique status, but it doesn't. It s a body part, and like every other body part, it shows age," Park says.

To get a better handle on how the brain works in older people, a team of American and Australian researchers examined a long-term study of 1,823 Australians aged from 70-84. The participants took various cognitive tests at different ages.

The findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

The researchers found that even as cognitive skills declined, the study subjects retained higher levels of skills in the same areas they had before. For example, participants who were better at quick thinking than verbal skills at age 72 retained that gap at age 83.

The findings suggest that aging doesn't reduce brain power to a single level, Anstey says: "Our results suggest that the picture is much more complex."

More information

Learn more about aging and the brain from Seniors-Site.com, and learn how the brain works from HowStuffWorks.com.

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