In recent years scientists have become intensely interested in what could be called a super memory club ”” the fewer than one in 200 of us who, like Ms. Scott and Ms. Cummins, have lived past 90 without a trace of dementia. It is a group that, for the first time, is large enough to provide a glimpse into the lucid brain at the furthest reach of human life, and to help researchers tease apart what, exactly, is essential in preserving mental sharpness to the end.
“These are the most successful agers on earth, and they’re only just beginning to teach us what’s important, in their genes, in their routines, in their lives,” said Dr. Claudia Kawas, a neurologist at the University of California, Irvine. “We think, for example, that it’s very important to use your brain, to keep challenging your mind, but all mental activities may not be equal. We’re seeing some evidence that a social component may be crucial.”
Laguna Woods, a sprawling retirement community of 20,000 south of Los Angeles, is at the center of the world’s largest decades-long study of health and mental acuity in the elderly. Begun by University of Southern California researchers in 1981 and called the 90+ Study, it has included more than 14,000 people aged 65 and older, and more than 1,000 aged 90 or older.
Such studies can take years to bear fruit, and the results of this study are starting to alter the way scientists understand the aging brain.
[blockquote]Bridge is a different kind of challenge, but some residents here swear that the very good players can play by instinct even when their memory is dissolving.[/blockquote]
Since I don’t play bridge, how much of the game depends on long term memory and how much on short term memory ( learning new things)? For example long term is what year you were born. Short term is what you had for lunch yesterday.
This is not a random sample of folks either. Those who become a part of the retirement community must qualify by being able to care for themselves and they are socially interactive. These folks are in a high SES population that can afford this kind of setting also. The portion of the Alzheimers population that gets the attention are the ones who lose their social skills and wind up in nursing homes. Remaining socially interactive and personable can cover a multitude of cognitive impairments. That is one of the tragic things about Alzheimers because it sends some to nursing homes and some to retirement communities. Too much evidence is correlate and not causative thus far. Being able to correctly identify different odors is a good sign.
By the way, if you are asked how a dog and a cat are alike and you say that they are both mammals then you are in pretty good shape. If you say they both have tails you are still OK. If you say they are not alike-one is a cat and one is a dog. Well…
My father could still play bridge adequately (“as well as he ever did,” his Master bridge-playing brother said), five months before his death from Parkinson’s complications, while he was having mild dementia episodes.
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