How to Train the Aging Brain | Hacker News Reader

How to Train the Aging Brain

nytimes.com

47 pointsrobg11 comments

I'm in my 50s. I do some similar exercises: putting shoes on in reverse order, play a Wii sports game left handed instead of right handed, etc. Also, about 1/2 of my friends very much disagree with me on politics/economy (I have some very liberal and very conservative friends who, for example, don't like it when I slam, respectively, Obama or Bush). I spend a good 10+ hours a week learning new tech.

My Dad is a good example of the advantages of doing new things. He was a physicist (and a member of the National Academy of Science) and at 60 he became an oceanographer. Now, in his late 80s, he has a passion for computer animation and video editing. To say that he is still very sharp mentally is a great understatement.

BTW, one great thing about developing software is that you get to be a quasi-expert at many different application domains as you work on different projects.

I listened to a panel recently discussing similarities and differences between human and machine learning. One thing I found interesting, was a human researcher who disputed the commonly held idea that computer memory is perfect and human memory much more faulty.

He pointed out that this comes from comparing human memory to simple RAM or disk access. Given an exact memory address, file path, etc. the computer always gives back exactly the right data. However, maybe Google is a better metaphor. You send in a query term or terms, and then evaluate whether what came back was really what you were looking for.

This highlights the importance of associations, indexing, and everything else that goes into using one piece of information to retrieve another.

Google doesn't always get it right, and there are lots of aspects of human memory that Google can't replicate (yet). But it's interesting that the article concludes with an acknowledgement that Google can remember for us much of the trivia we often forget.

You've missed one variation: I've spotted cases where Google "forgot" something.

Where Google had the information in part of its index and could retrieve it, but didn't have that same information in its more general searchable index.

Cases where you could get the data back from its residence (on Google's own servers), but where Google's indexes didn't offer up the data.

This is like when our brain remembers something but cannot recall it, unless reminded of something similar in either structural or superficial features.

Maybe Google (or other search engines) could improve its 'similar pages' functionality by emulating some of the ways brains recall things.

The author suggests that you “bump up against people and ideas” that are different as a means to having a healthy brain. In my younger days we used to call it - keep an open mind and is good advice for young as well as older people. :)

In my case as I got older I noticed the following:

1) My capacity to absorb information has increased. I can read two/three books in a day (sort of semi-scanning it) and by the end of the day I would have absorbed the info although albeit not remember the nitty gritty. However, I would know where to look up the details.

2) I feel that my brain tends to process new information, now - whereas in my younger days it accepted as a fact and just stored.

3) I was and I am still bad with names, but I think it is a trait of a lot of people that are into maths/science/engineering etc.

4) I have become sometimes too logical. I view this as negative and I am trying to work around it.

5) Creativity definitely goes down with age.

Overall I believe that my brain is now better - in middle age - than during my youth. I have made an effort to keep fresh in my mind things that interest me. Once a year I spend one-two weeks refreshing maths. I also code a lot and read a lot, even though I am into management and need not do any of these.

do others notice the "symptoms" described in that article? as far as i can tell, i seem to be just as useless at names as i always was, and seem to be able to think just as much and as clearly as ever.

i do notice the physical side - i can't run as fast as i used to (and i am not timing myself, so it's not that one is measurable and the other not). also, my sight is really bugging me - having to hold things further and further away to read them. but thinking-wise i haven't picked up anything.

i'm 42 and write software.

Compared to my early 20s, I'm also better at remembering names and conversations, but worse at remembering insignificant things like what I wore the day before or whether or not I locked the front door. I'm also much better at seeing connections between things rather than the facts themselves, which I think is more valuable. I think I'm reworking the way my brain learns to focus on things I think are important.

For reference I'm 31 and write software.

I'm 23, and I'm much better at remembering names than I used to be. On the other hand, my attention span is down to about 10 seconds :-/

"Educators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own, says Dr. Taylor, who is 66."

Socrates' mind will always be fresh.

I'm 61 and my brain is probably a bit better than it was when I was younger. But I do a lot of math, programming and music, not to mention politics.

The article doesn't in any way tell us how to train the aging brain.

Perhaps I should be buying the book in April to find out.

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