Poor Concentration & Aging
As we age our brain becomes less able to block out distractions, making it more difficult to concentrate on a singular task or to do several tasks at once.
Research seems to indicate that higher education levels may help individuals retain concentration levels later in life.
As adults move into middle age they often find that their concentration is decreasing, and that they are more easily distracted by trivial and irrelevant things around them. A joint study was conducted by The Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest and the University of Toronto into the cognitive function in young, middle-aged and old adults.
Senior Rotman Institute scientist and author Dr Cheryl Grady believes that there is a mechanism in the brain that can make older adults more easily distracted. The research hypothesizes that the reason for this lies in two regions of the brain’s frontal lobes that gradually develop a ‘see sawing’ imbalance, with the result that the older person is less able to block out distractions than young adults are.
The study’s findings indicated significant differences between the ability of young and older adults to concentrate. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex provides the ability to concentrate with certain activities such as reading, and its activity usually increases with stimulation in young adults. The medial and frontal parietal regions are associated with non-task activities such as resting or sitting quietly, thinking about something or just casually observing your surroundings. These regions actually decrease inactivity when engaged in non-tasks.
The research team found that as people entered middle age(40-60 years of age) the seesaw pattern begins to deteriorate when performing memory tasks. The level of activity in the medial frontal and parietal regions remains high, while activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex declines.Over 65, the imbalance becomes more severe, which may account for many old people having difficulty blocking out distractions and irrelevancies.
Link this post:
Comments
You must sign in or register to post comments.