Inside Age-Associated Cognitive Decline

摘要

Age-associated cognitive decline (AACD) which is also known as non-pathological cognitive aging - is an important human experience which differs in extent between individuals and also between different stages in our lifecycle. Cognitive decline is among the most feared aspects of growing old. In terms of the financial, personal and societal burdens, AACD is considered the most costly. The determinants of the differences in age-related cognitive decline are not fully understood. As people age, both biological and psychological changes occur. Some of these changes are positive, while others are not. Although the overall scenario might link to one phrase, i.e. cognitive decline, it is a cluster of different components and enormous variability exists across individuals. We find that every day that many older people outperform young people, at least on some cognitive tasks, and others of the same age demonstrated similar cognitive performance to the young. This is an important question to be resolved by aging researchers: What accounts for this variability?