One of the most common complaints among healthy older adults relates to a decline in memory performance. This decline has been linked to an inability to ignore irrelevant information when forming memories. In order to ignore distracting information, the brain should act to suppress its responses to distractions, but it has been shown that in older adults there is in fact an increase in brain activity at those times. In a new study published in the April 2010 issue of Elsevier’s Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex) researchers at the University of California San Francisco have shown that even prior knowledge of an impending distraction does not help to improve the working memory performance of older adults. [continue reading…]
Aging
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Despite the aches and pains that occur in old age, many older adults maintain a positive outlook, remembering the positive experiences from their past. A new study, reported in the April 2010 issue of Elsevier’s Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex), reveals that older adults’ ability to remember the past through a positive lens is linked to the way in which the brain processes emotional content. In the older adult brain, there are strong connections between those regions that process emotions and those known to be important for successful formation of memories, particularly when processing positive information. [continue reading…]
Eric Dishman does health care research for Intel — studying technical (and societal) solutions for problems in care for the aging. At TEDMED, Eric Dishman makes a bold argument: The US health care system is like computing circa 1959, tethered to big, unwieldy central systems: hospitals, doctors, nursing homes. As our aging population booms, it’s imperative, he says, to create personal, networked, home-based health care for all.
Source: TED
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Sexual activity, good quality sexual life, and interest in sex were higher for men than for women and this gender gap widens with age. Sexual activity, quality of sexual life, and interest in sex were positively associated with health in middle age and later life. [continue reading…]
