How to protect memory in old age?
Education in Childhood and youth seems to be able to older adults facing memory loss. In particular, women in particular benefit greatly from education, to your memory in old age still maintain.
In the case of an investigation under the direction of the Georgetown University Medical Center, it was found that education may help memory in old age to maintain. This seems to apply particularly for women. The results of the study were published in the English journal “Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition”.
What is the declarative memory?
The study of the declarative memory was looking at 704 older adults between the ages of 58 and 98 years. Declarative memory refers to the ability to remember events, facts and words, for example, where to put his keys, or how the new neighbor is.
Memory deteriorates with age
The Participants were shown drawings of objects. A few minutes later, their memory was checked with the help of these items. The researchers found that the memory performance deteriorated with increasing age more and more. More years of training in youth, counteracted these losses, however, especially in women, report the researchers.
How, exactly, education had a positive effect on the memory?
In the case of men with each year of training-related memory gains twice greater than the losses that they experienced in each year of aging. In women, these gains were even five times as large, says the research group. For example, the declarative memory of an 80-year-old woman with a Bachelor’s degree would be degree as well as a 60-year-old woman with a higher education. Four additional years of Training the memory from the same “losses” of about twenty years of aging.
Know, it can learn how to facilitate new information to
“Since Learning new information in declarative memory is easier if the information relates to existing Knowledge, should lead to more Knowledge from more education, even years later, to better memory,” says study author Dr. Jana Reifegerste in a press release.
Girls often have a better declarative memory
“There is evidence to suggest that girls often have a better declarative memory than boys, so that education for girls can lead to a larger increase in knowledge. Education can lead, therefore, especially in the case of women to a better memory, even years later, in old age,“ says study author Professor Michael Ullman more.
There were limitations in the study?
The study among individuals of the Taiwanese population studied. The Participants varied in the number of years of Training. Future research is needed to verify whether the results can also be applied to other populations generalized.
Access to education should be improved
Such results can be important, particularly in view of the rapidly ageing population in the world. The observed results support further efforts to improve the General access to education. “It was also noted that education delayed the onset of Alzheimer’s disease,” adds Professor Dr. Ulman. The results of the current study could be the question contribute to the answer to why this is happening.
Longer education is associated with better memory in old age
The results of the study indicate that children (especially girls) that go longer to school, to show how they age better memory performance. This seems to have an impact on the memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, add the researchers. (as)
Authors and source of information
This Text meets the requirements of the medical literature, medical guidelines, as well as current studies and was examined by doctors and Medical scientists.