- Younger people divide their attention, taking in lots of information
- But new tests show that ageing brains compensate by focusing on details
- Older people struggle to flit from thing to thing, but they are more focused
Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com
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As we age, our memories become foggier and our bodies weaker.
But new research has revealed the astonishing techniques our brains employ to fight that process.
Older brains struggle to rapidly switch from one focus to another.
However, they compensate by paying more attention to details than younger people.
The findings offer a rare glimpse into how the brain streamlines its functions to strengthen its abilities.
Elderly brains compensate by paying more attention to details than younger people
‘To a certain extent, the brain is able to slow down negative effects of aging by increasing its level of attentiveness,’ lead author Sabrina Schenk, of Germany’s Ruhr-Universität Bochum, explained.
This is down to a shift in the way we categorize things.
Younger people spread their attention wide, Schenk explained, gathering lots of information from different sources.
The elderly focus their attention, looking more at detail.
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To explore this phenomenon, the team gave categorization tasks to groups of younger and older people.
The participants of the study were asked to sort circles with varying color combinations into one of two categories.
Some of the circles were very similar to each other, some very different.
During the test they were given feedback as to whether they were right or wrong.
As the groups completed the test, the researchers recorded their brain waves with an EEG.
They also used an eye tracker to trace their line of vision.
With the similarly-colored circles, the results were the same: both young and old participants easily categorized everything.
When it reached a point with multiple circles of very different colors, older participants struggled to divide their attention as well as the younger patients.
That is hardly surprising, given the slowing affect ageing has on the brain.
‘There are two main strategies which we use to categorize things,’ Schenk said.
‘While we perceive similar looking members of a category holistically, we must specifically learn exceptions and memorize them.
‘Older people find it harder to switch from one strategy to the other.’
However, researchers were intrigued to see via the eye tracker that the elderly participants paid more attention to details, looking more closely at every element of one box at a time.
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