01:830:310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Mild Cognitive Impairment, Grey Matter, The Nuns
24 Mar 2016
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Cognitive reserve: some individuals have amassed so much crystallized intelligence that it takes longer for degeneration to become apparent. Use it or lose it: people who stay active and refresh their memories age more gracefully. Explain the control of variables in the nun"s study and why it is so valuable. The nuns were isolated (relatively speaking) and they were tracked over a long period of time. It was found that on average they had lower levels of. Alzheimer"s and dementia than the general population, and the more positively they wrote the better their mental health later in life. Processing speed decreases (reaction time goes down). Memory & new learning - problems retrieving and problems encoding. Linear decrease in weight and volume of gray matter. White matter increases through middle adulthood and only then starts shrinking. A transitional state between normal aging and dementia (faster than in a normal person who is aging).
