Written by: Patricia Faust, MGS, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
If you listen to the noisy chatter, we are experiencing every day, you probably have heard the term ‘cognitive decline’ thrown around a lot. There are a few obvious reasons why this seems to be the problem of the moment. The leading-edge Boomers are now old! There is no denying that. The Boomer generation spanned from 1946 to 1964. That means those born in 1946 are 75 years old now. There are a lot of Boomers. 10,000 of them are turning 65 every day until 2030. Since that many have been crossing the threshold of 65 since 2011, that means that close to 10,000 are now turning 70 every day. There are a lot of Boomers who are old.
It would be so easy to stereotype this group. In fact, that is happening every day too. As a nation, we are not used to having so many older folks. The longevity phenomenon is in full force too. As a society, we are not prepared for any of this, even though we have known for a long time that this aging issue was going to happen.
Now full disclosure, I am a gerontologist (sociology of aging), specializing in brain aging, brain health, and brain function. Oh – and I am a Boomer! It is my hope that you read what I have to say without any bias overshadowing your opinion.
Cognitive decline starts around the ripe old age of 25! At that age, we have created an abundance of neurons that aid as a buffer when we live those crazy years of twenties and thirties. We are killing off neurons by bad lifestyle choices, but we don’t feel the impact until we hit our forties. Then we begin to experience tip-of-the-tongue issues – we can’t recall a name, or a place, or what we wanted from the kitchen. This happens because we have depleted our brain reserve. Now when we are living that wild and crazy, or stressed life, we are killing neurons necessary for high brain function. Let’s take a closer look at the aging brain.
The Aging Brain
Everyone’s brain ages but our brain don’t know how old we are. Our brain ages by the way we treat it – good or bad. Normal aging can have a direct impact on how our brain functions. Here are some basic brain-aging functions that we all experience:
Cognitive decline: Cognition is the umbrella term for planning, thinking, memory, executive function. Cognitive decline starts around age 25 with an acceleration point at age 50 and again at age 70.
Speed of Processing: This is one of the key indicators of cognitive decline. Speed of processing is the amount of time it takes to bring information into the brain, ruminate over it, and give a response. When we are at our cognitive peak – those responses are very fast. We have lots of neurons and connections participating in the communication process. As we get older, the loss of neurons and connections slows communication down. Our brain functions slower. A 60-year-old brain is 2-3x slower than a 20-year-old brain. An 80-year-old brain is 5-6x slower than a 20-year-old brain. That slowdown impacts the functions of our brain.
Cognitive flexibility: Commonly known as mental shifting. It refers to our ability to switch between different mental sets, tasks, or strategies.
Memory lapses: We probably identify with this loss more than any of the other aging losses. There is a phenomenon called Tip-of-the-Tongue that we all have experienced as we get older. This occurs when you are trying to remember a name, an event, a location, an item. You know what it is; you can see it; you know the first letter, but you cannot remember the name or the item – or whatever it is you forgot. The memory isn’t gone – it just takes a while to recover it. Our memory is affected by aging. It takes a lot of effort to form a memory. The incoming signal comes in through working memory. The problem with working memory is that it is very vulnerable to distraction, and it only holds a small amount of information for a very short period. Because of all of this, we might not even be making the memories that we think we are forgetting.
Decline in financial skills: Money and finances are tough to handle with an aging brain. Finances are higher-order-thinking and some of us might have losses in the prefrontal cortex and just struggle to work with our finances. Financial literacy declines as we get older. Studies have indicated that adults in the 60 – 80-year-old range typically have a low understanding of financial literacy in the first place. As we get older the decline starts at a low bar of functionality. Our analytical reasoning peaks at age 53. This is disturbing when you first see this. We see aging as advanced aging and when we see an age of 53 as a peak with a decline to follow – it can be disturbing. Investment skills decline around age 70. This might not be necessarily true for those adults who were financial professionals but if you made your own investment decisions over your life you might not find as much success in your investment efforts after you are 70.
The age parameters are just that – generalizations as to when cognitive declines might occur. Researchers from New York University discovered that inconsistent decisions are related to decreased gray matter density in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex – an area involved with executive function and highly correlated with inconsistent choices. It is anatomy not chronological age that accounts for more irrational decisions.
Fluid intelligence: This type of intelligence is the ability to make decisions based on the information presented to you – not on past experience and education. Fluid intelligence decreases with aging.
On a bright note – Crystallized intelligence is based on your life experience, your education, your career, and your environment. This type of intelligence increases as we get older. Many older adults depend on crystallized intelligence to make decisions.
Longevity and Decision-Making
Now that you have the inside track on how aging brains affect brain function, let’s get more specific about how these factors affect decision-making.
Longevity requires older adults to maintain strong decision-making capabilities for a greater number of years. High-powered careers continue late in life. The average age for a CEO was shown to be 57-years old, with some of the oldest CEOs in their 70s and 80s. The minimum age to be president of the US is 35. But the ages of our politicians skew much older. Ronald Reagan was 69 when he was elected, Donald Trump was 70, and Joe Biden is 78. You cannot make a leap to conclusions about aging older adults in high-powered positions because, even though everyone’s brain ages, how we take care of our brain will determine what kind of functioning brain we will have when we are older. Several studies have indicated that cardiovascular exercise may improve blood flow in the brain rescuing executive function. (The Healthy Brain for Life – Physical Exercise).
Good Decision-Making
Good decision-making is a conscious and deliberate choice. It typically involves selecting an option that is most likely to meet our goals. Thinking through options and comparing all the pros and cons require some level of cognitive effort. Remember that our speed of processing slows down as we age. This is likely due to the wear and tear of the white matter in the brain – the nerve cells that transmit information to the rest of our brain. This can mean that we, as older people, may struggle to make cognitively demanding decisions. Older adults have limited resources to deal with complex decisions and the greater quantity of information with which we are faced. What we do have and capitalize on is crystallized intelligence – our wisdom. We can determine if we have made a similar decision in the past and base a new decision on our previous experience. Other aspects of cognition that also get better with age: emotional processes, problem-solving, expertise, and social context. Many older adults can process information by capitalizing on the brain processes that improve with age.
Emotions and Decision-Making
Emotions play a role in decision-making. Our subconscious brain dictates 94-96 percent of our decisions – all below our level of awareness. This is the area of the brain that determines what we really want. We discover what our subconscious brain is communicating to us by what we feel. It is our gut feeling, our intuition, and our emotions. The subconscious brain rules our ultimate thinking process – it is not what we think and say but rather what we feel and want.
All of us are experiencing cognitive decline as we get older. If we live a brain-healthy lifestyle through physical exercise, mental stimulation, nutrition, socialization, sleep, and reduced stress, we can create new neurons and synaptic connections. We can increase the volume of our brains and offset the losses we had sustained. It is possible to have a high-functioning brain at any age – if we work to keep it sharp. It is imperative not to view every older person as suffering cognitive decline based on chronological age.
Remember, our brain does not know how old we are. Our brain ages by the lifestyle that we lead.
Patricia Faust, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Patricia Faust is a gerontologist specializing in brain aging, brain health, brain function, and dementia. She has a Masters'sin Gerontological Studies degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Patricia is certified as a brain health coach and received a Neuroscience and Wellness certification through Dr. Sarah McKay and the Neuroscience Academy. My Boomer Brain, founded in 2015, is the vehicle that Patricia utilizes to teach, coach, and consult about brain aging, brain health, and brain function. Her newsletter, My Boomer Brain, has international readers from South Africa, Australia, Europe, and Canada. Patricia’s speaking experience spans the audiences' spectrum as she addresses corporate executives on brain function, regional financial professionals on client diminished capacity, and various senior venues concerning issues around brain aging and brain health.
References:
Sukel, K. (January 9, 2018). Aging and decision-making: a neuroanatomical approach. The Dana Foundation
Wandi Bruine De Bruin. (June 19, 2016). How aging affects the way we make decisions
