Poor Memory in Seniors Can Be Related to Distractions

We nearly all have some degree of memory impairment as we get older.  San Francisco researchers have shown this can be due to our inability to ignore irrelevant information when forming memories, even though we’re aware of its presence.  They’ve reported a possible mechanism for this in the journal Cortex. 

Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were made in 21 healthy volunteers aged 60 to 80 while they were shown pictures of faces and scenes.  They were asked to remember either only scenes or only faces.  In a second round of testing, they were warned in advance which pictures would be relevant, and which to ignore. 

The subjects’ working memory remained the same in both parts of the study.  In other words, prior knowledge of the relevance of interfering information does not improve working memory in older people – they are apparently unable to suppress the irrevelant.

This phenomenon may produce results similar to those in youngsters with ADD or attention deficit disorder, though there’s not an obvious hyperactivity component.  Has anyone ever thought of testing ADD-type medications in seniors with memory lapses?  Of course, their major effects are on behavior, not on memory, but they might be worth a try . . .