How Aging Affects Memory

Forgetting may be almost as important as remembering, in terms of brain functions.

Retaining, in your brain, every single bit of information you've been exposed to throughout your life would be catastrophic. For this reason, our brains sort out what will and what won't become long-term memories.

How this happens, though, is a matter of continuing debate, and may be influenced by many factors, including our…

• Emotional states
• Stress levels
• Environments
• Previous memories
• Biases
• Perceptions

Brain scientists believe that the effects of normal aging on memory may result from subtle changes within our brains. So to understand how aging affects memory, we need to look at natural changes in the brain and how we store memories.

Changes in the Brain Affect Memory

With aging, our brains seem to lose cells in areas that produce important neurotransmitters (chemicals that carry information between neurons). Decreasing the numbers of these cells and their ability to make the right kinds of enzymes upsets the delicate balance of these chemical messengers.

Other changes occur in the brain's white matter, which contains nerve cell fibers—the "telephone cables" of brain cells—through which communication with other cells takes place.

How these changes affect memory is not entirely clear, but it may be that they make cell-to-cell communication less efficient.

Storing New Memories

As we get older, our ability to create new memories may be affected, making it more difficult to learn new things. It's not that we forget more easily; we may simply take longer to learn information in the first place.

In practical terms, this means that as we get older, we may have to pay closer attention to new information that we want to retain. We may also need to try different strategies to improve learning and trigger memories.

Once people of all age groups learn something, however, they retain it equally well, even if the older people need a bit more time to learn it, and, perhaps, to retrieve it. A substantial number of 80-year-olds perform as well as people in their 30s on difficult memory tests.

Continuing to learn new things throughout your life can help keep your brain healthy. Also, as we age, we know more, and understand how to use what we know in the best way. In other words, we get better as we get older!

Additional Related Links

How Aging Changes the Brain

How Aging Affects Memory

How Free Radicals Can Harm the Brain

How Our Brains Improve with Age

Myths About Aging and the Brain