All tasks, from the simplest skill to the most complex action, require intact cognitive processes.
Performing a daily task, like answering the phone, having a conversation, or preparing a meal involves an array of cognitive skills. These skills include attention, memory, visual and spatial processing, as well as motor, language and social skills.
Some cognitive skills form part of what is called crystallised intelligence. These are well practised and familiar cognitive processes, like general knowledge, vocabulary and most language-related skills which tend to be resilient to ageing and often improve with age throughout a person’s life.
Other cognitive skills that are less resilient to ageing are components of fluid intelligence, such as learning, memory and processing, and solving problems.
Cognitive fitness refers to how well we can perform the wide range of brain based activities that allow us to reason, perceive and interact with the world around us. Cognitive reserve refers to how much cognitive ability you have stored up through lifelong learning and mental stimulation.
Cognitive impairment and dementia
Cognitive fitness and a high cognitive reserve mean that it’s easier to avoid cognitive impairment and degenerative conditions of the brain like, dementia.
Cognitive impairment describes a situation where a person’s thinking and memory are mildly reduced. This impairment may be temporary or non progressive, or it may lead to dementia.
Dementia is a condition that causes a decline in cognitive function, or a deterioration in the ability to think, remember, understand and learn.
According to the World Health Organization, the most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, accounting for 60% to 70% of cases of dementia. Although dementia is more common in older adults, it is not considered a normal part of ageing.
In the early stages of dementia, a person may have difficulty remembering things, and may lose track of time. Later, signs and symptoms may include forgetting events and people's names, getting lost, being disorientated to time and place, as well as behaviour changes, like aggression
References
World Health Organization. Dementia. September 2019.
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