How Researchers Studying the Aging Brain Have It Wrong

7/30/2019 How Researchers Studying the Aging Brain Have It Wrong

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How Researchers Studying the Aging Brain Have It Wrong

"[B.F.] Skinner’s memory and analytical skills were also declining during the years

when I knew him. Sometimes he had no recollection of a conversation we had had

only days before.”

"The sad truth is that even normal aging has a devastating effect on our ability to learn

and remember, on the speed with which we process information, and on our ability to

reason."

- Robert Epstein, “Brutal Truths About the Aging Brain,” Discover , October 2012

Epstein began his article by noting how brilliant Americanpsychologist B.F. Skinner was in his younger years. Decadesyounger than his friend Skinner, Epstein assessed the brain powerof the older man based on what his brain capabilities were as a

younger man, and on what his own brain abilities were at the time.

The decline of Professor Skinner’s brain, Epstein noted (also in thetitle of the article) was “brutal.” But was that conclusionreasonable?

Others have written about how muddled Albert Einstein became inhis latter years, jumping around intellectually as he tried to find theultimate theory of everything, justifying quantum physics andrelativity at once. Einstein questioned and doubted everything, evenhis own work. He was considered, though a great scientist in hisyounger years, progressively confused as he aged. Was that fair?

I am not suggesting that we should acknowledge older people forwhat they accomplished in the past and ignore their apparentcognitive decline. I am saying that younger scientists and writershave very little understanding of the capacity and new abilities of the aging brain.

There is little doubt that older people are not capable of the sameskills at the same levels as they were when they were younger.Does that mean that younger writers should consider them goofyold farts because they don’t understand the abilities of the olderbrain?

Are older people stupider than they were when they were younger,or than their counterparts a generation or two younger? There,that’s as brutally candid as I can make it. Many people believe that,so lets lay it out and examine it.

The reasoning used by younger brain researchers is flawed, just

plain illogical. Why? The reasoning is based on an unacceptablepremise. To pass the test of logic, we must begin with an acceptable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner



premise.

Do we claim that septuagenarian men dress poorly because theydon’t wear the same styles of clothing as teenage boys or twenty-something men? Of course not, that would be a ridiculous

comparison. Nor do most of us accept criticism of teenage boys by70-year-old men that the young ones dress wrong. They each dressto suit their needs.

It’s the same kind of reasoning scientists use to claim that other lifeforms are not as intelligent as we humans. They begin with theassumption that humans are the most intelligent animals (nevergiving a first thought to the intelligence of plant life), then comparewhat other animals can do (more often can't do) as well as humans.The assumption--the premise of a logical argument--is wrong,

unacceptable.

Please try this. Name one activity that any animal does--any one atall, for any animal--that a human can do as well. I have asked thatquestion many times, in many places, to many people and notreceived a reply. Each animal can do what it needs to do to survive.Does survival not show intelligence?

If humans cannot do anything as well as any animal does as part of its normal course of life, does that make humans less intelligent

than every other animal? That is the method of reasoning brainresearchers and journalists use.

A common test to show memory decline as people age is for theresearcher to read a list of 15 words, then ask the testee to say asmany of those words as he or she can remember after a break of afew minutes. Who has to memorize random words of little relevantvalue? High school students. Why should someone beyond thecommonly accepted age of retirement need to be able to memorizerandom words?

If older people ever had any real need to memorize randomunassociated words, they haven't needed that skill for decades.

Let's keep in mind something that younger brain researchers tendto ignore. Think about how much a 20-year-old brain has learnedand experienced over two decades. A huge amount, right? An 80-year-old brain has learned and experienced, and is somehowexpected to remember, four times as much as the younger brain.Four times.

Ask an elementary school teacher how often some facts and skills



must be taught and learned by kids in their classroom, because thekids forget. Somehow we accept that. But if someone aged 85 can'tremember where he left his car keys, he is considered to be "losingit." In total value to a life, which is more important to remember, anarithmetic skill such as how to add or where someone left their

keys? A little value perspective is needed.

Of course the maxim of “use it or lose it” applies as we age. Weaccept that kids of high school age should be able to memorizerandom and unassociated facts (usually of no further value after thetest), but researchers believe that old people should be able toperform the same tasks as their younger counterparts. Why? Noreason.

This is wrong. This is flawed reasoning. It begins with the

assumption that older brains have no value other than for what theycould do when they were younger. No matter what your age today,it is highly likely that you have forgotten almost everything youlearned in high school. In fact, once you pass age eleven, thatability to memorize apparently random and meaningless facts haslittle value.

Before age 11 you must remember because you never know whenyou will need to draw on the memory. Kids learn languages otherthan their mother tongue much easier before age 11. As they learn

words, they collect them, eventually assembling them intosentences, thoughts and concepts. Kids very much need the abilityto memorize apparently random information. Adults need facts tobe relevant, to "fit" immediately.

Would you want to choose, at election time, among candidates whowere all in their twenties to be head of state of your country? Of course not. We expect men and women who have lived through afew decades of life experiences to be wiser, to have the ability tothink clearly over a wide range of topics. Or to consider a wide

scope of information input on a single topic. Young brains can't dothat as well.

This is how the human brain works. A 26-year-old woman can standbeside a 66-year-old woman, looking at the same panoramic view,but see things differently. The younger woman will spot distinctivefeatures in the view (a building, a hill, a camel), whereas the olderwoman will take in more of the full value of the scene (a brownpollution cloud over the city, multitudes of people gathering in asquare for a particular purpose, even a sense of general activity or

lack of it across the whole scene). Older and younger brainsperform differently.



Most people find that time seems to pass faster as they get older.Why? The older brain is able to sustain thought and work on severaldifferent subjects within the same time period. Younger people tendto focus their thought and activity on one or two main things at a

time. A retired person may be involved with several differentactivities, turning their attention to each in its time. Even youngpeople learn that time seems to pass faster when they are busy.The older brain, for many people, is always busy.

Generally speaking, we expect an older head of state to providebetter guidance to our country than a younger person could give.We value the words of wiser older clerics who speak to us in ourplaces of worship more than we would of younger people. Youngerparents will expect tips about raising children from their own

parents, who are older and more experienced, more than they willfrom the teenager next door.

There can be no doubt that some older people are dumb, evendumber than they were when younger. That is practice (atrophy).But look around you at the behaviour of teenagers and young adultsto see that they do some pretty stupid things as well. Older peopledo not dominate when it comes to dumbosity. (Yes, I invented thatword and have used it for years because the language needed aword with that meaning.)

B.F. Skinner, at age 70, may not have had the ability to do the kindof ground breaking research he did at age 20. He did, however,have the ability to teach a younger generation how to take his basicresearch to much greater heights.

Albert Einstein developed his concepts of relativity and gravity whenhe was young. In his latter years, he struggled unsuccessfully tofind a “theory of everything" that would unite his work with that of quantum physics. Yet look at the legacy of work by those he

inspired, taking physics far beyond anything imaginable in Einstein'syouth. People today are inspired by the older Einstein, not theyounger man.

That's how life is supposed to work. The older brain has a purposethe younger brain has trouble conceiving. When a younger personthinks an older person is "losing it," we call that ageism. In mycountry, discriminating on the basis of age is a criminal offence.

Bill Allin is the author of Turning It Around: Causes and Cures

for Today's Epidemic Social Problems, a book of solutions andtips that parents and teachers can use to help their children avoid



the social problems they see in every community today.Learn more at http://billallin.com

http://billallin.com/

http://billallin.com/

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How Researchers Studying the Aging Brain Have It Wrong