Understanding Aging and Its Impacts

Aging

• Aging is defined by society as everyone over 65 years old.
• In the US, 36 million people (12% of the population) are considered "old."
• This population segment is on the rise, projected to be 20% of the population by 2030.
• The population aged over 85 is growing at the fastest rate.
• Women outnumber men in this age group, with a ratio of 3:2.
• Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years old, smoked from the age of 21 to 117, drank 2 glasses of port per week, and ate a kilo of chocolate per week. She also poured olive oil on her food and skin.
• Cognitive changes in normal aging are mild, with a slower processing speed, and greater difficulty in recalling names and novel tasks.

Normal and Pathological Aging

• Questions posed regarding aging:
  • At what age is someone considered an "older adult"?
  • What makes a person "old"?
  • Is getting older viewed positively or negatively, and why?
  • How are the speaker's grandparents aging? (Assess mood, concern, and evidence of dementia).

Old Age Statistics

• Statistics provided on aging population.

Maximum Lifespan

• Jeanne Calment's remarkable longevity and lifestyle details.

An Impressive Graph

• Changes in the population pyramid from 1950 to 2010 and projections for 2050, showing demographic trends.
  • Data is based on age and gender categories.

Iowa Older Adult Demographics

• Demographics of older adults in Iowa, visualized on a US map.

Cognitive Changes in Normal Aging

• Overall, age-related cognitive changes are mild.
• Processing speed slows.
• Novel tasks and name recall often become more challenging

The "Paradox of Aging"

• Well-being trends increase with age.

Hartshorne & Germine (2015)

• Cognitive abilities and performance across various categories (Arithmetic, Comprehension, Information, STM [Short Term Memory]: Family Pictures, Stories, Word Pairs, Vocabulary WM [Working Memory]: Letter-Number Sequencing) are measured in relation to age.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen & colleagues)

• A motivational theory suggesting older adults adjust their emotional regulation in response to life constraints.
• Older adults exhibit a bias towards positive material.

Positivity Bias: Emotional Memory (Denburg et al., 2003)

• Study comparing recall of positive and negative information in younger and older adults.
  • Younger and older adults recall positive and negative experiences.

Older Adults Catch Up To Younger Adults on a Learning and Memory Task that Involves Collaborative Social Interaction (Derksen, Duff, Weldon, Zhang, Zamba, Tranel, & Denburg, 2014)

• This research found older adults perform comparably to younger adults on learning and memory tasks that require collaborative social interaction.

Barrier Task

• Task description and associated images.

Example 1: Trial 1

• Trial descriptions and images from the participant data.

Example 2: Trial 9

• Trial descriptions and images from the participant data.

Demographic and cognitive characteristics of Younger and Older directors

• Data table presenting demographic and cognitive characteristics of younger and older adults.

Normal Aging of the Brain

• Increased age is a primary risk factor for dementia.
  • Prevalence of dementia typically increases by 5% in each decade after 65.
• "Normal" aging is associated with variable cognitive decline, atrophy, accumulation of Alzheimer-type pathology, and reduced cerebral blood flow.

Cognitive Reserve

• Multiple studies suggest individuals with higher cognitive reserve may use brain resources more effectively in the presence of age-related pathology associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Mild Cognitive Impairment

• Amnesic MCI is a transitional stage preceding Alzheimer's dementia.
• Subjective and objective memory problems are present, but other cognitive functions and daily activities are usually intact.
• MCI progresses to dementia at an approximate rate of 15-20% annually.
• The cumulative rate of progressing to Alzheimer’s disease is approximately 80% by 6 years.

Theoretical Progression of MCI to AD (Petersen et al., 2001)

• Graphical representation of the theoretical progression from MCI to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with respect to age versus function.

Dementia

• Acquired impairments in multiple cognitive aspects (memory, language, problem-solving) are serious enough to impact daily activities.
• Dementia encompasses multiple disease processes, with Alzheimer's contributing most cases.

Warning Signs of Dementia

• Memory loss affecting normal activities
• Excessive difficulty finding words
• Trouble with familiar tasks
• Getting lost in time or place
• Mood, behavior, and/or personality changes
• Poor judgment and decision making

Common Causes of Dementia

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Vascular disease
• Parkinson's disease
• Pick's disease
• Medication side effects
• Depression
• Alcohol/drugs
• Brain tumors
• Hydrocephalus

Young Onset vs. Late Onset Dementia (van der Flier & Scheltens, 2005)

• Pie chart representing the distribution of dementia types based on onset age.

Alzheimer's Disease

• An age-related, irreversible brain disorder.
• Develops gradually, leading to memory loss, decline in thinking abilities, and personality changes.
• These deficits result from the breakdown and death of brain cells.

Normal vs. Alzheimer's

• Visual comparison of healthy neurons versus those with Alzheimer's disease, highlighting neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques.

Neurofibrillary Tangles

• Twisted protein fibers (tau) are found within cells.
• Causes abnormal neuronal functioning.

"Tombstone" Cells

• Image of these cells.

Neuritic (senile) Plaques

• Deposits of beta-amyloid protein that develop between cells.
• Interrupts communication between cells which disrupts and causes cell death.

Brief Video

• A brief video on a Patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Neuronal Death

• Image comparison of a healthy brain to that of a patient with Alzheimer’s showing the differences and neuronal death.

Alzheimer's Disease Brain Scans

• Visual comparison of normal brain scans versus brain scans of patients with Alzheimer's.

Treating Alzheimer's or any other Dementia

• Current treatments slow, but do not halt, brain degeneration.
• Effective treatment to prevent or reverse Alzheimer's disease has not been found.
• Development of new pharmaceuticals usually takes 10-15 years at a cost of ~$800 million.

Forms of Long-Term Memory

• Declarative memory: Facts and events e.g., repeating newspaper article
• Anterograde memory: Forming new memories of new material
• Retrograde memory: Recall of previously acquired memories
• Procedural memory: Behavioral responses e.g., bike riding

Word List Learning and Recall in Alzheimer's Disease

• Graph comparing word recall in people with Alzheimer's versus control participants, depicting performance across trials (e.g. 1st trial, 2nd trial).

Rotor Pursuit in Alzheimer's Disease

• Graph comparing performance on a rotor pursuit task in individuals with Alzheimer's versus control participants across trials and delay times.

Rotor Pursuit

• Description and image of the task materials.

Mirror Tracing

• Description and image of the task materials.

Long-Term Memory

• Chart representation of various aspects of long-term memory systems (declarative, procedural, priming) in different brain regions.

Procedural Memory

• Memory involving a behavioral response, not conscious recall.
• Acquired through repetition and practice; preserved in amnesia/Alzheimer's disease.
• Based on different brain structures than declarative memory.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

• PMR's use in addressing behavioral disturbances (e.g., anger, wandering, anxiety) in Alzheimer's patients.
• Study methodology and results (i.e., improvements observed) are presented.

An Empirical Question

• Question about whether mood persist when the memory inducing the mood is lost.
  • A clinical trial designed to investigate this issue.

Timeline of the Experiment

• Diagram illustrating the experimental timeline with 2 mood inductions.

Recollection of film clips and postfilm emotion ratings following the sadness induction.

• Graph demonstrating the recall of sad film clips by individuals with amnesia.
  • Also assesses sadness ratings and changes in these ratings before, after and during a period of memory functioning.

Recollection of film clips and postfilm emotion ratings following the amusement induction.

• Graph demonstrating the recall of amusing film clips by individuals with amnesia. -Also assesses amusement ratings and changes in these ratings before, after and during a period of memory functioning.

Conclusions

• Mood states (e.g., sadness, amusement) can endure beyond loss of declarative memory.
• Normal declarative memory and intact hippocampus are not needed for emotion.
• Study results have important clinical implications for how society treats patients with memory impairment.