Discuss the changes to the brain due to ageing

Discuss the changes to the brain due to ageing

In recent years we have seen incredible developments in our understanding of the world, scientists have mapped the human gene, explored the surface of Mars and developed crops that produce their own pesticides.

By contrast, much about the human brain still remains a mystery, especially when it comes to understanding how the brain ages. (Guttman, M., 2001)

Most of us have had the experience of standing in a shop and not being able to recall why we went into the shopping centre in the first place, or forgetting a meeting we should have been to. All of us have experienced these memory lapses, the difference between the memory lapses when we are young as supposed to when we are old, are in the light that we view them. When we get older it is easier to get the creeping feeling that there is something wrong.

English: Portrait of old woman sitting by a window...

Image of Golgi stained neurons in the dentate gyru...

A rotating animation of the human brain showing th...

It is very normal that memory loss occurs among older people, it is not due to ageing, but to organic disorders, brain injury, or neurological illness. It is definitely not an inevitable consequence of ageing (Pirch, R. A., 2000).

Intellectual performance tends to be maintained until at least 80 years old. However, tasks may take longer to perform because of some slowing in central processing and we can become annoyed or embarrassed with our self as new tasks at home and work may take a longer time to learn (Beers, M. H., Berkow, R., Joynt R. J., 2003).

It is highly likely that almost two-thirds of us will have some age-related memory changes as we age, and these changes are regarded as normal

It is very likely that the physical changes which appear with advancing age accounts for at least some of the noticeable cognitive changes.