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The Penalty of Knowing Too Much

May 02, 2013
by Caroline Miller
" too much memory linked to dementia, "Aging Brains", Ian Chant
0 Comment

Last week, I took a friend to lunch to celebrate her 73rd year. She’s as fit as anyone half her age and has kept her figure so that she wears clothes well and always looks stylish. Her one concern about getting older is Alzheimer’s, a disease that afflicted her father. She doesn’t mope about it but faces the challenge head on. She exercises regularly, eats well and avoids sugar. As for her social activities, I can’t keep up with her.

 Everyone who lives a full life has to face the prospect of some form of dementia. Science has been studying the condition and their discoveries are surprising. For example, forgetting may not be the problem. Remembering is. Older brains get too full of “stuff.”

 Creating memories relies in part on the destruction of old memories, and recent research finds that adults have high levels of a protein that prevents forgetting. (“Aging Brains,” by Ian Chant, Scientific American Mind, May/June 2013, pg. 8.)

 Apparently, our brains are wired so that as we age, the synapses – connectors between neurons — don’t disengage as they should, making it difficult to form new memories. Holding on to old information makes it hard to store new information. That’s why older people learn more slowly than the rest of the population. (Ibid pg. 8.) This slow learning curve is one the young geeks of technology would do well to remember. Continually tinkering with applications could lose them a growing share of the consumer market. Technology may be speeding ahead but an aging brain isn’t.

older man at computer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of jewishdailyreport.wordpress.com)

 

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published five novels

  • Getting Lost To Find Home
  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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