Aging

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  • On average, older adults with low levels of vitamin D showed much faster decline in episodic memory and executive function.
  • Older adults with dementia had significantly lower levels of vitamin D compared to those with MCI or normal cognition.
  • Low vitamin D was more common in African-Americans and Hispanics, compared to whites.

A study involving 382 older adults (average age 75) followed for around five years, has found that those who don’t get enough vitamin D may experience cognitive decline at a much faster rate than people who have adequate vitamin D.

Idiosyncratic brain activity among older people watching a thriller-type movie adds to evidence that:

  • age may affect the ability to perceive and remember the order of events (explaining why older adults may find it harder to follow complex plots)
  • age affects the ability to focus attention and not be distracted
  • age affects the brain's connectivity — how well connected regions work together.

A study involving 218 participants aged 18-88 has looked at the effects of age on the brain activity of participants viewing an edited version of a 1961 Hitchcock TV episode (given that participants viewed the movie while in a MRI machine, the 25 minute episode was condensed to 8 minutes).

  • A correlation has been found between physical activity in healthy older adults and more variable resting-state brain activity.
  • More variable resting-state activity in older adults has previously been linked to better cognition.
  • No such correlation was found between cardiorespiratory fitness and resting-state brain activity.
  • The finding supports previous evidence linking higher levels of physical activity in old age with better cognition and brain health.

A study involving 100 healthy older adults (aged 60-80) has found that those with higher levels of physical activity showed more variable spontaneous brain activity in certain brain regions (including the

  • A large study of older adults with age-related macular degeneration found no cognitive benefit from taking omega-3 supplements, or supplements of lutein and zeaxanthin.

A large, five-year study challenges the idea that omega-3 fatty acids can slow age-related cognitive decline.

  • A large study of older adults (70+) found no cognitive benefit from a regular exercise program, compared to another social & mental intervention.
  • However, a subset of participants (those over 80, and those with poor physical function at the beginning of the study) did show improvement in executive function.
  • Participants in both programs showed no cognitive decline over the two-year period, suggesting both interventions were helpful.

A large, two-year study challenges the evidence that regular exercise helps prevent age-related cognitive decline.

More evidence for the benefits of the Mediterranean diet for fighting age-related cognitive decline comes from a large 5-year study. The study involved 960 older adults, whose cognitive change was assessed over 4.7 years.

A six-month pilot study involving 101 healthy older adults (65+), who were randomly put into one of three exercise interventions or a no-change control, has found that the exercise groups all showed significant improvement in visual-spatial processing and attention, with more improvement in visu

The root of age-related cognitive decline may lie in a reduced ability to ignore distractors. A new study indicates that older adults put more effort into focusing during encoding, in order to compensate for a reduced ability to hold information in working memory. The finding suggests a multi-pronged approach to improving cognitive ability in older adults.

I've reported before on the idea that the drop in

A review of meditation research reported in January last year concluded that there were insufficient good studies to allow us to say that meditation clearly improves attention and cognition.

In 2013 I reported briefly on a pilot study showing that “super-agers” — those over 80 years old who have the brains and cognitive powers more typical of people decades younger — had an unusually large <

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