Onset of cognitive decline begins at 45 years of age?
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Onset of cognitive decline begins at 45 years of age?
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Not sure if you have already seen this study published in the BMJ about when cognitive decline begins to set in. http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.d7622?tab=full Participants were tested on memory, r
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Onset of cognitive decline begins at 45 years of age?
posted at 11/1/2012 10:09 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Not sure if you have already seen this study published in the BMJ about when cognitive decline begins to set in. http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.d7622?tab=full Participants were tested on memory, reasoning, vocabularly and phonemic and semantic fluency during a 10 year longitudinal study. The conclusion of the study was that "Cognitive decline is already evident in middle age (age 45-49)." However, one Rapid Response by Rosaleen A McCarthy, Consultant Neuropsychologist, points out that "with the exception of the Vocabulary test, all of the cognitive tasks reported in this paper were administered with very tight time limits. The only test in this paper that did not involve tight time limits was the only one that did not show evidence of deterioration with age. There is a possibility that people may fare worse on the authors’ mesasures of reasoning and memory because they are working against time limits and they are getting slower as they age rather than because their thinking skills or memory are getting worse." This suggests that cognitive decline has been attributed to potentially a lack of speed in working out the tasks rather than giving a competent answer. Dr McCarthy also points out that older people may be more cautious and that slowed performance is not necessary linked to biological constraints. |
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