OphthalmologyWeb
After a nice piano performance by Kenneth Rosenthal, MD, Manus Kraff MD introduced the speaker: Elkhonon Goldberg, PhD, ABPP, a Professor of Neurology at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City. He is a neuropsychologist who spoke today about accommodative aging. His main point was that certain cognitive losses take place as one ages, such as loss of executive functions, memory, and attention. However, there are also certain cognitive gains as one ages. These are the retention of expert knowledge and the ability to problem solve within one’s own area of expertise.
Pattern recognition is the main cognitive asset of aging and one’s arsenal of patterns grows with age. This is juxtaposed to the decline in exposure to novel cognitive challenges with aging.
By reinforcing pattern recognition, one’s ability to maintain and increase expert knowledge and problem solve in one’s area of expertise increases. This occurs by the process of neuroplasticity. Furthermore, neuroplasticity is neuroanatomically specific and directly benefits brain areas engaged in mental activities (such as those used for pattern recognition). It is a life-long process.