PRONE TO ABSENTMINDEDNESS

Starting at age 50, your 3-pound brain gradually loses its volume in weight,so that, by age 75, it weighs roughly 2.6 pounds.

  A lot of the shrinkage in your brain is from a loss of water.  Different parts of your brain lose their volume at different rates. 

 You FRONTAL LOBES --which serve as your executive control center, giving you your sense of judgment and allowing you to avoid blurting out rude and inappropriate comments--show the greatest amount of shrinkage compared to any other part of your cortex.

  The Frontal lobes can shrink up to 30 percent from the time you turn 50 to the time you turn 90.  Looked at another way, your frontal lobes lose 0.55 percent of their volume every year after age 50. 

 As the frontal lobes shrink, you lose some of your capacity to be in control. (Now, perhaps, you won't be as surprised by some of the rude comments that come out of your grandfather's mouth.)   

   Your frontal lobes also play a big role in your ability to pay attention long enough to form short-term memories.  If your frontal lobes do an inadequate job, they can make you prone to absentmindedness.

  As you age, you may become more apt to forget where you placed your keys or forget why you walked into a room.    Your TEMPORAL LOBES, which help you remember the gist of an experience, shrink up to 20 percent as you age. 

 This means that your ability to remember what you hear and say falter as you get older. Your temporal lobes also have to try to interpret inadequate information coming in if your hearing is failing. (And so to combat this shrinkage of your temporal lobes, you need to push them to be more active:  Engage in debate, listen to lectures and discuss later, engage in discussion about memories you share with spouse, partner, or friends. 

  INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY like that has the same beneficial effect on the lobes as pumping iron has on the biceps.    As you age, your HIPPOCAMPUS also shrinks.  Between the ages of 50 and 90, it loses up to 20 percent of its volume. 

 Your hippocampus is centrally involved in moving your short-term memories into long-term memories.   The loss in volume of your hippocampus means that acquiring new memories can be a little more difficult, compared to earlier in your life. However, the situation is far from hopeless.  Your brain is highly affected by changes in your nutrition, so your job is to make sure that you have the best nutrition possible.  Each meal should include a : Complex carb, fruit or veggie, protein. 

       Your OCCIPITAL LOBES, commonly referred to as the VISUAL CORTEX, lose mass, too.  The occipital lobes' ability to process visual information falters, but like your temporal lobes, they have to deal with inadequate information coming in. This lack of information to process is largely due to the deterioration of you optic nerve and retina.

  To keep your occipital lobes functioning well:  Attend art and photo exhibits, Go on sightseeing trips, Share your pictures with friends and relatives.  Use eyeglasses if you have them.    Because the occipital lobes are responsible for interpreting visual information, doing things that demand visual information, doing things that deman visual memory provides a good workout for the lobes.  KEEPING YOUR NEURONS FROM SHRINKING. 

 The shrinking in your brain isn't due only to the loss of water.  Your DENDRITES shrink, too.  Your dendrites form the part of your neurons that reach out to other neurons and draw information. The fewer dendrites, the less opportunity to think and form memories from multiple channels.   This problem explains the tendency of some older people to lose track of conversations or complex sections of books.

  Their dendrite connections have decreased, limiting the complexity of each thought and each memory.    The more you challenge yourself intellectually, the more your brain grows new dendritic connections with other neurons.  YOUR BRAIN CAN MAKE NEW DENDRITIC CONNECTIONS THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE DESPITE YOUR AGE.

  One great way to fight the trend of memory loss is to learn new information, challenge yourself to branch out, and think in ways you haven't before. 

    All this shared from "Improving Your Memory for Dummies."