Why Memory Fades - How Memory Changes With Age: Improving Memory Understanding Age Related Memory Loss

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Why memory fades

Declarative memory may decline somewhat with age. This form of memory depends on the hippocampus for consolidation, and the hippocampus is especially vulnerable to age-related changes. Declarative memory comprises memory for facts and events, and includes, for example, information about your retirement accounts. You may struggle to remember the names of your mutual funds, or you may forget which stock you sold last year. In addition to such verbal facts, you may have more trouble remembering recently learned spatial information, such as the directions to a new location. It's not just that you learn this sort of information more slowly; you may have more trouble recalling it because you hadn't fully learned it in the first place.

Some of what scientists know about age-related memory loss comes from studies of animals. In one such study, older mice took longer to learn to escape from a maze than younger mice. These results are consistent with what scientists observe in people — and what people notice about themselves as they age. If you and your child or grandchild learn a new computer baseball game together, chances are that the next day the child will remember more of the details of how to play the game than you do.

Willpower and effort can overcome some of the age-related difficulties with learning. Researchers now know that in many instances, if you make the effort to learn something well, you will be rewarded — you'll be able to recall it as well as a younger person can.

Last updated:	January 23, 2007