Presently in 2025, people aged 65 and older now outnumber children under 5. This statistic is according to the United Nations. At first, this seems like a good thing when considering people born in 1900 never lived past 50. However, as we get older, the risk for long-term intractable disease of the body and brain occurs. By 2050, the World Health Organization estimates that 135 million people around the world will have dementia.
Neuropsychologists along with medical colleagues have been working hard in gaining information about aging normally versus cognitive deterioration. Research has established that everyday cognitive tasks, for instance, knowing when a prescription has to be refilled, looking through bank statements or the cellphone for numbers – declines over time, despite research scientists’ previous assumptions that these skills remained relatively stable and considered consolidated skills. Research is also now finding that there is a parallel decline in reasoning, problem solving, abstraction, and organizational abilities which collectively play a greater role in limitations of daily functioning associated with age than what was preconceived as memory decline. This overall cognitive ability integrates multiple areas of reasoning and summarizes it into an efficient daily behavior.
Decision-making, with regard to the aging person’s ability to hold and manipulate information, coupled with multitasking, deteriorates with age and is more critical to daily life as just described memory, which many people can work around
In looking at healthy individuals, healthy aging people and the errors that they make in daily activities has been compared with patients who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. When looking at these three populations in terms of how they perform basic daily activities such as cooking, answering the phone, and associated other basic activities of daily living tasks and watch how they completed them, the healthy older adults were less efficient at tasks overall, often having to backtrack looking for multiple locations for items, correcting mistakes or repeating a step. However, the individuals with mild cognitive impairment omitted key steps from the same tasks or did alternate actions, for instance, dusting the kitchen instead of the living room. Finally, the more severe dementia patients were incapable of efficiently completing these tasks, let alone multitasking.
Finally, research has shown that the effects of physical activity and cognitive training with patients in very early cognitive decline, as well as in healthy seniors is beneficial. Both these interventions lead to improvement in cognition in healthy individuals. In closing, research is showing the old idea that aging produces immutable changes is no longer true. Nonetheless, there are things we can do particularly in the very early stages of cognitive decline, whether it is normal cognitive aging or MCI, they are some helpful measures. This consists of seeing a neuropsychologist who will administer a neuropsychological examination, which is for all practical intents and purposes, a functional expression of the older person’s cognitive capacity. Pending results from that, recommendations will consist of possible referral to neurology, radiological studies, and blood lab work in order to confirm the profile. The neuropsychologist can then recommend strategies and adjustments based upon the examination in order to enhance the person’s quality of life.
If there are any questions about a family member’s thinking abilities, give us a call and we shall be happy to see you in consultation and make the appropriate recommendations.
Robert B. Sica, PhD, ABN
Director, Principal Partner NRS|LS
Board Certified, Neuropsychology