My first reading of the morning after a long week. I should have stayed in bed. Extrapolate an increasing cognitive function decline and this gets scary as we age. Rather than accept the research findings below, I will embrace as fact his closing comment – this survey would NOT align with a different sampling target!
Source: Forbes – The Brain Declines From Age 40, But Don’t Fire the Middle Aged Just Yet. Some Excerpts:
An interesting report out today showing that declines in mental function start rather earlier in life than we have all previously thought. It’s actually in our 40s that cognitive function starts to decline.
Memory, reasoning and comprehension skills – collectively known as cognitive function – all tend to get worse as we enter middle-age, found the study of thousands of Whitehall civil servants.
The researchers quantified the mental abilities of over 7,000 civil servants between 1997 and 2007. Aged between 45 and 70 at the start, they were asked to undertake a series of tests at the beginning and end of the 10-year period.
For example, in one test they were asked to recall as many words beginning with ‘S’ and as many animal names as possible from a list of words read to them. Other tests examined their vocabulary, aural and visual comprehension.
The researchers found those aged 45 to 49 in 1997 experienced a 3.6 per cent decline in cognitive function over the decade.
The real reason you don’t want to get rid of everyone in this age group or over is because cognitive function isn’t actually the only thing that you’re employing people for. Yes, of course, a certain amount of it is necessary and lots of it certainly desirable. But it still isn’t the only thing that is being paid for. The other things, like wisdom, experience, knowledge, they’re also important.
But which of us wouldn’t at least claim that we learnt more than 3.6% more between 45 and 49 which would cover that decline in pure brain function?
On the other hand, if this is all too close to home (my own 40th disappeared in the rear view mirror some time ago) we can take comfort in the fact that this research was carried out with civil servants and therefore may well not apply to human beings at all.
Image Source: infinitives.tumblr.com
I don’t know if you ever read the book Brain Rules, but in it the author explains a great deal of research that has been done that supports the notion that cognitive function is directly linked to physical activity. I don’t want to make generalizations (but I will) about the sample group, but how active of a lifestyle do we think they were leading? That being said, I crossed the 40 threshold a couple of years back so I am going to go running now.
Love your optimism. If this were true (physical activity improving cognitive functions and slowing down the losses), you and I should be running a marathon a week my friend. Enjoy your run!