IS IT ALL DOWNHILL AFTER 40
(OR 50 OR 60 OR 70) ?
Rodney Morton
WHAT IS COGNITIVE SKILLS??
•It is true that some cognitive skills decline as
you get older.
•Cognitive aka cognition is a group of mental
processes that works with making decisions,
memory, attention, understanding languages,
and problems.
•Cognitive abilities can decline at any age if they
are not used regularly
•They can be sharpened at any age with the right
conditioning.
Younger Children
 Young children are not only growing physically during
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early childhood, but they are also growing mentally
Children are better at learning new languages than
adults.
Children are quicker to judge if two objects are same or
different
According to French speaking Swiss psychologist John
Piaget children goes through two phases in cognitive
growth.
The more important of the two is Symbolic Function substage being able to create mental images to store them
for later.
Important parts of the Brain
Brain Regions and functions
Frontal lobe—self-control,
judgment, emotional
regulation; restructured in
teen years
Corpus callosum—
intelligence, consciousness
and self-awareness; reaches
full maturity in 20’s
Parietal lobes—integrate
auditory, visual, and tactile
signals; immature until age
16
Temporal lobes—emotional
maturity; still developing
after age 16
THE CONCLUSION OF BRAIN
DEVELOPMENT
•As stated in the last slide the brain is still developing in the
teen stages and supposedly comes to a stop at the age of 20
• It is to be believed that cognitive function becomes less
efficient with age.
• researchers discovered that in some people’s brain
showed reductions in white matter integrity over time
• Which would cause degradation
•There are many diseases such as
Alzheimer's that contribute to brain
Degradation.
Adults
 An adult brain also has it’s advantages
 They can see the whole scenario of events
being able to size up a situation much faster
 They can get to the main point of a problem
quicker
 Overall the elder brain has more wisdom over
the younger children
 We can actually improve our brains if we
remain healthy. Increasing our chance to live
our whole lives with pretty sharp brains
Causes of Cognitive
Disorders
 Tumors
 Stroke
 Diseases (Alzheimer’s)
 Mixed Dementia
 Head Trauma
 Many More Fall Under this Category…
Sources
 http://www.habigerelderlaw.com/library/olde
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r-brains-vs-younger-brains.cfm
http://www.bhcmhmr.org/poc/view_doc.php?
type=doc&id=12758&cn=462
http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_b
rain_0502.pdf
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.ph
p?type=doc&id=13148&cn=231
Top Ten Myths About the Brain