Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre

CAD101 ASSIGNMENT

Assessment Task 2: Discussion Board

Impact of Age on Cognition and Memory

NAME : FAHMIDA MIM

STUDENT ID: 558612
‘POST ’ WORD COUNT : 324
‘RESPONSE’ WORD COUNT: 216

Impact of Age on Cognition and Memory

Research evidence shows that significant changes in cognition occur with normal ageing
(Murman, 2015; KlencKlen et al., 2017). While acquiring knowledge or cumulative past
memories do not get affected by ageing, instant cognitive processing ability constantly declines
(Murman, 2015). Changes in attention occur with ageing, which is responsible for complex
work, such as decision-making and planning (Murman, 2015). Vocabulary and speech
comprehension in normal conversation stay stable through ageing, but it becomes difficult for
older people in noisy conversations. Aged people become more repetitive and less verbose.
Perceive of spatial representation and ability to draw complex figures also declines with age.

Murman inscribed that ageing causes significant grey matter loss in the prefrontal cortex along
with the temporal lobes. The White matter in frontal lobe and corpus callosum also reduces. A
reduction in the number and the length of dendrites, decrease in axons, loss of synapses occurs
during ageing. Studies suggested that 46% loss of dendritic spins occurs in the dorsal lateral
prefrontal cortex, which is essential in executive function and working memory (Morrison &
Baxter, as cited in Murman, 2015). A decrease in synaptic number occurs throughout life.
However, 40% or greater loss of neocortical synapses can cause symptomatic dementia (Terry et
al., as cited in Murman, 2015).

Most of the researcher agrees that the working memory's performance declines with normal
ageing (Murman, 2015; KlencKlen et al., 2017). KlencKlen et al. (2017) studied which type of
memories got a high rate of decline during normal ageing. They suggest that this performance
degradation in older adults does not depend on the type of memories that means a similar decline
happens for color and spatial information. In contrast, it is found that the performance of
working memory with higher memory load and complex information declines faster than simple
memory (KlencKlen et al., 2017). According to their study, the hippocampus area is most likely
to be linked with age-related declines responsible for maintaining several representations
simultaneously.

Word Count: 324

Reference:
KlencKlen G et al., 2017, 'Working memory decline in normal aging: Memory load and

representational demands affect performance, ' Learning and Motivation, vol. 60, p. 10-

22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2017.09.002

Murman DL, 2015, ' The Impact of Age on Cognition', Semin Hear, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 111-121,

doi: 10.1055/s-0035-1555115 

Response: I am responding to the post of Tamara Duff

Tamara described beautifully the study of Vermeij et al. (2016) suggesting the result of training
on cognitive function especially memory. According to their study, working memory could be
improved by training, but its long-term effect is inconclusive. However, hippocampal atrophy
can negatively impact training gain which is supported by the correlation between a high number
of errors with hippocampal atrophy after training. While Klencklen et al. (2017) studied the
correlation between the types of working memory and convolution of memory with normal
ageing, Vermeij et al. (2016) studied the effect of training to improve working memory.
Klencklen et al. suggested that memory degradation with age was independent of types of
memory, which is also supported by Vermeij et al. They found that all types of memory could be
improved through training. However, the performance of working memory with higher load is
not studied thoroughly, which declines more with ageing (Klencklen et al. 2017). In case of
hippocampal atrophy, training impacts negatively on the performance of working memory
resulting in more errors in tests. As Murman (2015) indicated that a higher number of synapses is
lost in case of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, which could cause counterproductive
performance during brain atrophy. However, more study is needed to draw a relationship
between training-induced task performance and brain structure.

Word Count: 216

Reference:
KlencKlen G et al., 2017, 'Working memory decline in normal aging: Memory load and

representational demands affect performance, ' Learning and Motivation, vol. 60, p. 10-

22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2017.09.002

Murman DL, 2015, ' The Impact of Age on Cognition', Semin Hear, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 111-121,

doi: 10.1055/s-0035-1555115 

Vermeij A, et al., 2016, ‘Transfer and maintenance effects of online working-memory training in

normal ageing and mild cognitive impairment’, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, vol.

26, no. 5-6, p. 783-809, doi: 10.1080/09602011.2015.1048694.