Does your doctor have any clue as to the best way to get you to learn new ways of doing things to recover your functionality. Is there a different protocol for different ages?
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=165241&CultureCode=en
As a person ages, perception declines, accompanied by augmented brain
activity. Learning and training may ameliorate age-related degradation
of perception, but age-related brain changes cannot be undone. Rather,
brain activity is enhanced even further, but for other reasons and with
different outcomes. Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB)
discovered these facts in a recent study, the results of which have now
been published in Scientific Reports.
Enhanced brain activity at old age
The researchers asked test participants in different age cohorts to
feel two needlepoints that were located closely to each other with the
tips of their fingers. Older participants perceived two points as a
single event even when they were located quite far apart, whereas
younger people were still able to distinguish them as two distinct
points, which is evidence for degraded tactile perception at higher age.
This impaired perception experienced by older people goes hand in hand
with a spatial enhancement of brain activity, which researchers
generally interpret as a compensatory mechanism.
Learning and training improve perception
“Age-related degraded perception is not irreversible; rather, it can
be improved through training and learning,” explains Dr Hubert Dinse
from the RUB Neural Plasticity Lab. The question researchers then asked
was: if age-related impaired perception can be restored, will the
age-related expansion of brain activity be reduced as well? In other
words: can training and learning lead to a “rejuvenation” of the brain?
Learning too enhances brain activity
Studies with young adults have shown that learning processes are
typically associated with an enhanced and broadened brain activity. If
age-related impaired perception can be restored through learning,
learning should have a different effect on the brain in older people
than in young adults: the age-related enhanced brain activity should be
reduced. Yet, as the neuroscientists from Bochum observed, the opposite
is the case: learning processes in old people result in a further
enhancement of brain activity too, which is associated with improved
perception.
Learning to understand ageing and learning processes with the computer
“We asked ourselves: how can the different effects of enhanced brain
activity on perception in older people be explained?” recounts Dr
Burkhard Pleger from the RUB Neurology Clinic in Bergmannsheil Hospital.
For the purpose of the study, the researchers used computer simulations
to model both brain activity and associated perception. To this end,
they simulated a number of alternatives of how those results might have
been generated. These simulations showed that the observed pattern of
age-related changes at the level of brain activity and perception could
only be explained by the weakening of a mechanism that limits spread of
activation, thus keeping activity focussed. In contrast, the observed
learning effects could only be explained by reduced inhibition, which
leads to higher brain activity. This mechanism is operating in both
young and older people. Thus, the older brain learns according to the
same principles as the younger brain. Considering the magnitude of
learning-induced improved perceptual ability in younger and older
participants, the study shows that older people improve even more than
younger people. This result too can be explained by the computer
simulations through reduced suppressive neural mechanisms in the elderly
participants.
Training pays off at every age – but it does not rejuvenate the brain.
“The computer simulations explain how changed brain activity can have
opposite effects on the level of perception. In addition, they explain
the observation that the ‘treatment’ of ageing processes does not
reverse age-related brain changes, but rather remodels them,” says
Hubert Dinse. “They demonstrate that training and learning pay off at
every age, in order to remain fit.”
http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2016/pm00088.html.en
No comments:
Post a Comment