Memory

Memories help people remember and recall past memories that have happened in their lives. These amazing/ unforgettable memories help people for the remainder of their lives no matter how insignificant they are. Aging is one of the main factors that prevent people from remembering unforgettable memories from the past.

Before an individual can completely understand why loss of memory is such a deprivation, one needs to know more about memory. According to Webster?s Dictionary memory is ? the mental process or faculty of responding in consciousness, an act or experience with recognition that it belongs to the past.? As a critical element to daily life, memory also helps plan the future by learning from the past incidences. Two main categories of memory tasks are episodic and semantic memory. Specific and special events, as well as time related, are all parts of the episodic memory task. Speaking words, naming objects, and recalling experiences are functions made possible by the semantic memory tasks.

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

Neurons

As a complex process, memory is also divided into types: short-term and long -term memory. Retaining information for several seconds while doing more than one activity at once, is short- term memory, generally short- term memory is located in the Pre frontal cortex, which is found in the front part of the brain. Having the ability to recall facts from a new name to an event taken place at the age of four is due to short and long-term memory.

To be able to recall both short-term and long-term memories, is an ability affected by many different factors but is mostly affected by age. Thinking memory and problem solving are the main skills decreased with time. Aging makes paying attention more difficult and makes learning new data much more demanding ad time consuming.

As the Aging process takes its toll on the body, the brain is also going through many changes of it own that are not noticeable at first. In a normal brain, when its recording memory, the brain responds within a fraction of a second. Memories dwell in patterns of connections between altered neurons so the message can easily cross the synapses, or the place where the two neurons meet.

When the brain begins to change over a period , the one clearly noticeable effect is memory loss. Blood vessels carry crucial oxygen and nutrients to the brain cells, but with time they become narrow, so not enough oxygen and nutrients can reach them. Essential and critical brain cells membranes tear and wear making the neurons regular functions falter lead to memory loss.

Among the many diseases of an aged brain, Alzheimer?s ranks at the top as the most common disease. This aging disease starts with depositions of amyloid protein outside neurons that causes plaques and tangles.

Growing older id accompanied by memory loss, because of the loss of synapses that carry information to and from neurons. Improving memory could be perhaps as easy as keeping a calendar to remember events or doing physical activities that allow more oxygen into the brain.