Scientists reveal that memory loss can start at 45 years of age

Scientists reveal that memory loss can start at 45 years of age

Scientists have claimed that the brain begins to lose sharpness of mind, memory and powers of reasoning and understanding at the age of 45. Earlier it was believed that the loss of memory
and sharpness of mind starts at the age of 60.

The scientists studied more than 7,000 civil servants, 5,000 men and 2,000 women, between 45 and 70. These servants underwent verbal and written tests on three occasions in the last 10
years.

The researchers, led by Archana Singh-Manoux from the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health in France and University College London in the UK expected the deterioration
in the memory and mind sharpness would occur in the oldest volunteers but they came to know that the brains of even the youngest volunteers were already slipping down the track.

The scientists recorded a 3.6% decline in the mental reasoning of men and women aged between 45 and 49. This process was faster in the old people; men from 65 to 70 had a 9.6% decline
while the women showed some improvements with 7.4% of the decline.

Scientists believe that people with faster rate of deterioration are likely to develop dementia later in their lives. The researchers also believe that those people who are at higher risk
of memory and mental reasoning loss can be detected and treated at an early stage before Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia appears.

Speaking to the media about their research, Singh-Manoux said, “Understanding cognitive ageing will be one of the challenges of this century. This will have a profound impact both on individuals
and on the societies they live in.”

A series of tests were conducted by the researchers on the participants to measure their mental performance. One of these tests was Alice Heim 4-I, which is a series of 65 verbal and mathematical
reasoning problems. According to the researchers, they tested “inductive reasoning, measuring the ability to identify patterns and infer principles and rules.”

Another test was conducted to check the short-term verbal memory. A list of 20 words of one or two syllables was given to the participants and they were then asked to write down all they
could remember in any order within the next two minutes.

The civil servants were also tested on verbal fluency. They were asked to write down as many words as they can which start with the letter S in one minute and then as many animal names
as they could, also in 60 seconds. At the end, a multiple choice vocabulary test of the meaning of 35 words was also conducted.

The scientists concluded that deterioration of the brain starts at early stage of our lives but it can be treated and controlled.

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Posted by Zeeshan Gohar on Jan 10 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry