Picture yourself at 80. Where did that picture come from? You’ve never been 80, so your brain built it out of parts: things you’ve lived, people you’ve watched get older, and every joke and offhand comment about old people you’ve absorbed along the way.

In part three of our four-part series on memory and the aging brain, I look at research showing the brain uses the same memory system to remember the past and imagine the future. We talk about a short exercise that boosted detail in both, older adults included, and why every acting coach who ever told you to “bring yourself to the character” may have been describing how the brain works.

Then we get into beliefs about aging. A 2023 analysis of 107 long-term studies found that how people interpret their own aging predicts later health and longevity, while experiments show that a reminder of the “forgetful old person” stereotype can cause a small, temporary dip in performance. I’m upfront about which findings come from experiments, which are observational, and where the evidence is weaker than the headlines.

Next month we close out the series with superagers.

Sources:


The Cognitive Performer is produced by Many Voices Media.

Rss
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör Marco Rigazio. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Marco Rigazio och inte av, eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.