Lifetime of knowledge can clutter memories of older adults

Date:
February 11, 2022
Source:
Cell Press
Summary:
When a person tries to access a memory, their brain quickly
sifts through everything stored in it to find the relevant
information. But as we age, many of us have difficulty retrieving
memories. Researchers propose an explanation for why this might
be happening: the brains of older adults allocate more space
to accumulated knowledge and have more material to navigate when
attempting to access memories. While this wealth of prior knowledge
can make memory retrieval challenging, the researchers say it
has its upsides -- this life experience can aid with creativity
and decision-making.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
When a person tries to access a memory, their brain quickly sifts
through everything stored in it to find the relevant information. But
as we age, many of us have difficulty retrieving memories. In a review publishing in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences on February 11, researchers propose an explanation for why this might be happening: the
brains of older adults allocate more space to accumulated knowledge and
have more material to navigate when attempting to access memories. While
this wealth of prior knowledge can make memory retrieval challenging,
the researchers say it has its upsides - - this life experience can aid
with creativity and decision-making.


========================================================================== Researchers Tarek Amer (@tarekamerphd) of Columbia University and
Harvard University, Jordana Wynn (@jordwynn) of Harvard University, and
Lynn Hasher of the University of Toronto looked at several behavioral
and neuroimaging studies, which show that older adults have difficulty suppressing information that is no longer relevant and that when searching
for a specific memory, they often retrieve other, irrelevant memories
along with it. The studies also showed that when given a cognitive
task, older adults rely more heavily on previous knowledge than younger
adults do.

While the researchers focus primarily on the difficulties that these
cluttered memories may pose, they also highlight a few situations in which these crowded memoryscapes may be useful. "Evidence suggests that older
adults show preserved, and at times enhanced, creativity as a function
of enriched memories," the researchers write. They further hypothesize
that older adults may be well served by their prior knowledge when it
comes to decision-making, where they can pull on their accumulated wisdom.

With continued study and increased understanding of how memory
works in older adults, researchers are hopeful that they may be
able to find new ways to help them. They write, "It is possible
that the increased binding and richer encodings of older adults can
even be leveraged to improve older adults' learning and memory."
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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Tarek Amer, Jordana S. Wynn, Lynn Hasher. Cluttered memory
representations shape cognition in old age. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.002 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220211111852.htm

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