Here's Where Our Minds Sharpen in Old Age - Facts So Romantic

Many have noted that the big contenders in the last two American presidential elections were well into their 70s, raising questions of the mental capacity, going forward, of these potential leaders. "Starting after middle age, say around 60 or so, memory and other abilities decline," says Dilip Jeste, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at UC San Diego and director of the UCSD Center for Healthy Aging. But what actually declines--and what abilities might improve, as well as when, how, and at what speed--is a complex issue. It turns out, according to a new study in Nature Human Behavior, that many things improve with age, including some cognitive aspects that had previously been thought to get worse. John Verssimo, of the University of Lisbon, and his colleagues, looked at a large sample of people between the ages of 58 and 98 and measured their performance on a broad range of cognitive tasks to get a more detailed picture of cognitive aging.