An aging brain: it's not as bad as you think

We all worry about aging— whether it's the wrinkles that will dare to appear on our faces or the fear of losing our cognitive abilities.

According to the Wall Street Journal, there is a new study that has found that aging actually helps with some of our brain capabilities. Reaction speed, memory, attention, and other cognitive functions do decrease with age, but the other functions, such as vocabulary skills, stay the same or improve with age. Another benefit of an aging brain is that older adults have a plethora of expert knowledge – that only comes with experience. The article describes a study made between younger and older air traffic controllers to compare their abilities. According to the findings, the older adults performed as well or better than the younger counterparts—not because they were quicker and did well on memory tests but because their experience allowed them to "skip" steps and to better handle the situation.

This finding and study brings up the issue of delaying the mandatory retirement in major companies. Some companies have mandatory retirement ages as low as 55 years of age—which is truly amazing considering boomers will not want to golf all day in Florida when they retire. After all, 55 is extremely young for retirement considering the number of centenarians is on the rise.