LATE ADULTHOOD - When taste is harder to detect, food is less

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT enjoyable, increasing the likelihood of dietary

LIFE EXPECTANCY deficiencies.
FUNCTIONAL AGE - Smell has a self-protective function
- actual competence and performance TOUCH
AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY - Touch discrimination declines.
- the number of years that an individual born in a - Fluid skills are strongly correlated with older
particular year can expect to live, starting at adults’ tactile performance.
any age. CARDIOVASCULAR AND RESPIRATORY
AVERAGE HEALTHY LIFE EXPECTANCY SYSTEMS
- the number of years a person born in a - The heart muscle becomes more rigid, and
particular year can expect to live in full health, some of its cells die while others enlarge,
without disease or injury. leading the walls of the left ventricle to
PHYSICAL CHANGES thicken.
ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING (ADLS) - Artery walls stiffen and accumulate some
- basic self-care tasks required to live on one’s plaque due to normal aging. The heart muscle
own. becomes less responsive to signals from
INSTRUMENTAL ACTIVITIES OF DAILY pacemaker cells within the heart.
LIVING - Changes in the respiratory system compound
(IADLS) the
- business of daily life and also requiring some - effects of reduced oxygenation.
cognitive competence - Cardiovascular and respiratory deficiencies.
NERVOUS SYSTEM IMMUNE SYSTEM
- Memory loss - T cells, which attack antigens (foreign
- Withering of the myelin coating on neural substances)directly, become less numerous and
fibers. effective.
- Loss of synaptic connections. - The immune system is more likely to
- Death of neurons. malfunction by turning against normal body
- Enlargement of ventricles within the brain tissues in an autoimmune response.
PREFRONTAL CORTEX
- responsible for strategic thinking
SENSORY SYSTEMS
VISION
CATARACTS
- cloudy areas in the lens, resulting in foggy
vision.
- Dark adaptation
- Decline in binocular vision and visual acuity.
HEARING
- Reduced blood supply and natural cell death in
the inner ear and auditory cortex, along with
stiffening of membranes (such as the eardrum),
- cause hearing to decline.
- Decline in speech perception.
TASTE AND SMELL
- Cigarette smoking, dentures, medications, and
environmental pollutants can affect taste
perception.