• kofe@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Cognitive decline is not inherent to old age. It is something to look out for.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Cognitive decline absolutely is inherent. You can delay it, but by 70 everyone has measurable decline.

      • kofe@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Do you have research that demonstrates this conclusively? I’ve taken courses in psychology of aging, lifespan development, brain & behavior, etc. None of them discussed such a claim for everyone, but it’s possible I didn’t pay well enough attention.

        I asked ChatGPT as well, and it’s disagreeing with you, for the record. There are changes and differences, but the brain is a muscle like any other that requires training. Learning new skills, solving puzzles, etc. is correlated to the maintenance and/or improvement of the organ over the lifespan.

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            4 days ago

            Next time, they should use a Ouija board, it’s less likely to lie to them.

        • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          Research has shown that concept formation, abstraction, and mental flexibility decline with age, especially after age 70

          Many fluid cognitive abilities, especially psychomotor ability and processing speed, peak in the third decade of life and then decline at an estimated rate of −0.02 standard deviations per year.

          https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4015335/

          However, what does appear clear is that several different types of results converge on the conclusion that age-related cognitive decline begins relatively early in adulthood, and certainly before age 60 in healthy educated adults.

          https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2683339/

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            4 days ago

            at an estimated rate of −0.02 standard deviations per year

            That’s unmeasurable with any statistical tool with any degree of confidence. The error bars on that will completely wipe out the signal-noise ratio.