the effects of aging on brain function

[jrtom]

NY Times article: "In Search of Lost Time"

An excellent, if somewhat long, article on one person's investigations into what happens to our brains as we age (excluding such things as Alzheimer's--we're talking about so-called "normal" aging effects)--and what can be done about it.

Comments

hmmm

[amnesiadust.livejournal.com]

No doubt things do deteriorate... and perhaps she really did feel more deterioration than most of us do. On the other hand, I caught a whiff of hypochondria as I went through it...

I suspect that lots of people (not just the author of this article) are eager to find out what's going wrong with them, why they can't cope in everyday society... but I'm feeling more and more as time goes by that our society is becoming less and less suitable for casual living by creatures that evolved in much smaller social groups. As the complexity of people's lives increase, it seems natural that they'll have a harder time remembering things, keeping present in the moment, and so forth. Not that I discount the medical opinions put forth in this article -- she may very well have brain damage -- but I can't help thinking that external pressures are also a factor operating in all this.

Heck, I've always been scatterbrained and in general have felt *less* scatterbrained as time has gone on, not more... we'll see if I'm whistling the same tune in ten years or so, though.