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Since a report released on Thursday by special counsel Robert Hur described President Joe Biden as an \u201celderly man with a poor memory,\u201d there have been significant misperceptions about the cognitive changes associated with aging, neurologists say.<\/p>\n
The report on Biden\u2019s handling of classified documents noted that the president hadn\u2019t remembered the exact time frame that he served as vice president and was struggling to recall the period when his late son, Beau Biden, had passed away. Biden defiantly rejected the changes in a press conference late Thursday, saying \u201cmy memory\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also been scrutiny of other recent events when the 81-year-old president mixed up names of foreign leaders.<\/p>\n
However, neurologists say blanking on the names of acquaintances or having difficulty remembering dates from the past, especially when under stress, can simply be part of normal aging.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you asked me when my mother passed away, I couldn\u2019t necessarily tell you the exact year because it was many years ago,\u201d Dr. Paul Newhouse, clinical core leader for the Vanderbilt Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Research Center, said.<\/p>\n
Almost every older patient has trouble remembering people\u2019s names, Newhouse said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s by far the most universal complaint of every person as they age,\u201d Newhouse said.<\/p>\n
In Newhouse’s experience, this type of forgetfulness doesn\u2019t actually predict who ends up having memory disorders. Only a person\u2019s doctor or neurologist can make that diagnosis, not outside observers, brain experts say. <\/p>\n
Dr. Dennis Selkoe, co-director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in Boston, agreed that forgetting names doesn\u2019t actually provide much insight into potential memory problems.\u00a0In fact, stress and a lack of sleep, can interfere with memory, no matter how old someone is.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaming proper nouns is not an adequate basis to make a conclusion about whether an individual has a more consistent and more concerning substantive progressive memory disorder,\u201d Selkoe said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s normal for older brains to have more difficulty retaining new information and then retrieving the information, but mental processes like decision-making and judgment can actually improve with age,\u00a0said Dr. Thomas Wisniewski, director of NYU Langone Health\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Research Center and its Center for Cognitive Neurology.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the raw power of memory has some degree of decline, perhaps wisdom can increase because the individual has a greater backlog of experiences and different situations as to what is the best thing to do,\u201d Wisniewski said.<\/p>\n
The problem isn\u2019t having trouble remembering names or calling someone by the wrong name, but when someone\u2019s memory is fuzzy about recent or past experiences, said Newhouse. Issues with episodic memory \u2014 memory for events in time or if a person doesn\u2019t remember going shopping, for example\u00a0\u2014 can be a sign of a progressive disorder, but not always.<\/p>\n
Wisniewski said he becomes concerned when people don\u2019t even recognize that they are forgetting things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey forgot that they went shopping and they\u2019re unaware that they\u2019ve forgotten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Overall, neurologists tend to worry less about a patient\u2019s ability to remember remote memories from many years ago and more troubled by an inability to recall more recent events. That\u2019s because dementia first affects the part of the brain that\u2019s responsible for short-term memories, as opposed to long-term memories, said Newhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m more concerned about is, can you remember what happened yesterday? Or an hour ago?\u201d Newhouse said.<\/p>\n
While the conversation surrounding aging is often framed around a person\u2019s diminishing memory or executive functioning, there are cognitive benefits that come with growing older, Selkoe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a type of emotional intelligence and ability to handle many different kinds of experiences in life that come with greater longevity,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople can make decisions more carefully and more rationally.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n