 |
|
|
|
April 11th, 2011
03:56 PM ET
Why it's harder to multitask as you get olderThere you are with a phone in one hand and a drawer handle in the other, and after reading a few incoming texts you've completely forgotten why you went to open the drawer in the first place. These kinds of moments that happen to all of us, even 20-somethings. They're related to natural brain aging. A new study sheds light on why older adults have more trouble with multitasking than younger people. Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the brains of older people, when interrupted, tend to have greater difficulty switching back to their original task than younger folks. Interruptions are bad for everyone's working memory, or the ability to remember things over brief periods of time, study authors say. Through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers got a clearer picture of why this is worse for older adults. The study compared brain activity in 20 healthy adults, with an average age of 69, to 22 healthy younger people aged 18 to 32. Participants were given a memory task, which was interrupted with another task, and then asked to return to the original activity. It seems that both older and younger people direct about the same amount of attention to the interrupting task, but older adults run into more trouble when they need to let go of the interruption and reestablish the neural network associated with the original memory. "We find that [in] older and younger adults both, their working memory performance is diminished by being interrupted, but older adults are impacted more," said Dr. Adam Gazzaley, study co-author and neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco. There are still a lot of open questions about how this decline takes place. Unpublished data from Gazzaley's group suggest that a lot of the brain changes involved in multitasking may begin as early as the 20s and 30s. It may be even earlier - in general, depending on how you measure particular abilities, everything is downhill after age 18, says Dr. Barry Gordon, neurologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Some mental abilities do improve with age, such as vocabulary and wisdom that comes from life experience, Gordon says. "How you use your brain overall can get better, but the individual components of it are suffering a gradual decline," Gordon says. Gordon likened an 18-year-old's brain to a brand new computer with nicely polished pieces, but which has not been trained to do anything. People, like computers, need a lot of different abilities, as well as training and experiences in them. "It’s not a matter of raw power. It’s a matter of putting it all together," he said. What can be done to preserve your mind as it ages? Scientists are working on a variety of therapies, both behavioral and pharmaceutical, that could help cognitive decline. Gazzaley's group's study could help those efforts, as it gives a better understanding of how multitasking difficulties work in the brain, said Dr. Scott Small of Columbia University Medical Center. It’s turning out to be much more difficult than researchers thought to identify cognitive exercises that would help the aging brain stay sharp, Small said. There is no specific regimen of activity that has been proved to work so far. Gazzaley's group is currently working on video games with the potential to improve these mental abilities in older adults. Small and colleagues, meanwhile, look to identify potential drugs, including food products already known to be healthy that could turn out to help the brain, he said. All of this does bring up an ethical question: Should we be developing drugs for "normal aging," which is not a disease per se? The general feeling in the field is that it's OK, Small said. But the bar is even higher than usual to show that such a drug intervention would be safe, he said. The bottom line: Avoid interruption if you need to get something done, says Gordon. Do one task at a time rather than trying to juggle them. And if you're trying to study for an exam, spread out the learning over a long period of time.
Next entry »Relief for nickel allergy on the nano level
« Previous entryGo on birth control for 20 years for missed periods?
|
  About this blog
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.
 |
|
|
|
Thanks so much the information. I love sucking dick btw hmu
https://chrok1.blogspot.com
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
A motivating discussion is worth comment. There's no doubt that that you should publish more about this subject, it might not be a taboo subject but usually people do not discuss these subjects To the next! All the best!!
http://www.virtual-circuit.org/
One Tree Hill should be the best TV series for me, the characters are great,.
http://yourmatrixcashmachine.com
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research on this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more clear from this post. I am very glad to see such fantastic information being shared freely out there.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
I¡¦m no longer sure the place you are getting your information, however great topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for excellent info I used to be in search of this info for my mission.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
Do you want get more social network traffic, likes, subscribers? Our Company provide SMM Services that means (Social Media Marketing) that is directly using social network websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to promote a website. High Quality Services / Our prices are the cheapest in the market, starting at $0.01 / 24/7 Support / API Support for panel leaders / Best prices
https://bit.ly/2Hnl7vE
Social network traffic Facebook likes Twitter Followers Instagram Followers and much more
https://bit.ly/3iYGuRO
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
Earn 500 a Day With Our Passive Income System Doing These 3 Steps: Step 1: Get our ready made niche websites, Step 2: Setup your Paypal account. Step 3: Run our Unlimited Traffic System from our Free 850 sources of traffic and start earning your income in same day. More info: https://warriorplus.com/o2/a/gp8vk/0
https://bitly.com/2qChAkX
Earn $1000 a Day With Our Passive Income System
https://bigticketcommissions2020.blogspot.com/p/bigticketcommissions-2020.html
We're a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your web site provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done a formidable job and our whole community will be grateful to you.
http://www.zortilonrel.com/
Great site to review. Worth the time. Do YOU know a College Student? More help with their written assignments needed than ever before. Tell them about Essays Unlimited. They can solve this problem.
https://www.essaysunlimited.com
thank you for this info.
https://chrok1.blogspot.com/2021/02/33-33-louloua-series-episode-33-lulu.html
I’m impressed, I have to say. Actually hardly ever do I encounter a weblog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me inform you, you've gotten hit the nail on the head. Your idea is excellent; the issue is something that not sufficient persons are talking intelligently about. I'm very pleased that I stumbled across this in my search for one thing relating to this.
https://europa-road.eu/hu/kombajn-szallitas-mezogazdasagi-gep-szallitas.php
1,000,000 GSA Live Backlinks High Quality SEO links + Bad Links Removal: https://www.seoclerk.com/Link-Building/842081/1-000-000-GSA-Live-Backlinks-High-Quality-SEO-links-Bad-Links-Removal
https://www.seoclerk.com/Link-Building/842132/500000-Scrapebox-Blast-Live-SEO-blog-Comment-Backlinks
I've been trying everything and unfortunately they won't work. I tried posting a playlist in my wordpress in the 'Pages' section but the playlist won't show. Can someone please help with this?.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmkowalsky/
Do you want get more social network traffic, likes, and retweets? SMM Supreme uses his own panel system to generate social media traffic to any website. Best Quality-Price Ratio on the market with 714928 orders until now. – Facebook Fan Page Likes: $4.50/1000 – Instagram Followers: $0.78/1000 – Youtube Views: $1.62/1000 – Twitter followers: $2.10/1000 – Paypal Deposit – Payeer Deposit – Automatic order processing – Our Website: https://smmsupreme.com/
https://bit.ly/3iVO2Vh
Hey! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to give it a look. I'm definitely loving the information. I'm book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Terrific blog and amazing style and design.
https://10vina.com
Hello.This post was really fascinating, particularly since I was looking for thoughts on this issue last couple of days.
http://www.vreyrolinomit.com/
Very well written story. It will be beneficial to everyone who utilizes it, as well as me. Keep doing what you are doing – for sure i will check out more posts.
http://www.vreyrolinomit.com/
2l5f7 u0cof 9ade
I really like your writing style, excellent information, thankyou for posting : D.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
I think other web-site proprietors should take this web site as an model, very clean and magnificent user friendly style and design, as well as the content. You are an expert in this topic!
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
Hi! This post could not be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
http://www.froleprotrem.com/