[Science Report]:Failing Memory


This is the VOA SpecialEnglish SCIENCE REPORT.

It is common for older people to forget things. Now an Americanstudy has found that memory starts to fail when we are young adults.People younger than thirty years of age usually do not know thatthey are starting to forget information. But scientists from theUniversity of Michigan in Ann Arbor say the loss of memory usuallyhas already started.

Researchers say people do not observe this slow reduction inmental ability until the loss affects their everyday activities.

Denise Park led the new study. She directs the Center for Agingand Cognition at the Institute for Social Research at the Universityof Michigan. Her team studied more than three-hundred-fifty men andwomen between the ages of twenty and ninety years. The studyidentified people in their middle twenties with memory problems.

She says young adults do not know they are forgetting thingsbecause their brains have more information than they need.

But she says that people in their twenties and thirties arelosing memory at the same rate as people in their sixties andseventies.

Mizz Park says people between the ages of sixty and seventy maynote the decrease in their mental abilities. They begin to observethat they are having more trouble remembering and learning newinformation.

The study found that older adults are more likely to rememberfalse information as being true. For example, they remembered falsemedical claims as being true. Younger people remembered hearing theinformation. But they were more likely to remember that is wasfalse.

Mizz Park is now using modern imaging equipment to study whathappens in the brains of people of different ages. She is studyingwhat parts of the brain older adults use for different activitiescompared to younger adults.Mizz Park says mental performance is adirect result of brain activity and brain structure. She sayskeeping the brain active is important. She says older people shouldtake part in activities that keep their brain active. These includebeing a member of a book-reading group, seeing and discussing playsand concerts and playing games that use the mind. She hopes futurestudies will identify ways to improve the operation of our agingminds.

This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.

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