What happens to memory with age? What are the behavioral, neural, and molecular changes that occur with age? What are some environmental interventions that could be used?
What will be an ideal response?
With age, several aspects of memory can be affected. These include working memory, the ability to retrieve old memories, and the ability to create new memories. Significant deficits in the numbers of brain cells have been observed in the midbrain, basal forebrain area, some prefrontal areas, and the hippocampus. Thus far, 17 genes located in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus have been implicated in the deficits observed during old age. These genes show changes in expression with age. For example, downregulation of one of the genes leads to reduced production of a protein that plays an important role in memory.
From both animal and human studies, environmental interventions include living in an enriched environment, which reduces age-related changes in dendritic branching, neurogenesis, spine density, and cortical thickness; physical exercise; and diet, which includes less calorie intake and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables containing flavonoids, which has been associated with better language and episodic memory, slow cognitive decline, activation of cellular learning mechanisms, enhanced LTP, and increased hippocampal neurogenesis. Also included is the Synapse Project, which showed evidence of improved episodic memory capabilities among the elderly after engaging for 16 hours a week for 3 months in a cognitively demanding task.
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