Week 12: Ageing and functioning Flashcards
What are some maintenance functions of the body?
Repairing damaged tissue
Cancerous cells destroyed by the immune system
When does maintenance function start to diminish?
From 50 years
What is senescence?
A degenerative phase of ageing
- The body tries to maintain itself but can’t keep up
What is the cellular theory of ageing?
Continuous exposure to toxins, pollutants etc leads to generic errors in replicating cells
With age, more cells have errors and with cell inefficiency comes cell death - leading to eventual death of the organism
What are programming theories of ageing?
Suggests there is a max lifespan preset by genetic factors
You can shorten this, but the max is preset and cannot be extended
What are cross-sectional studies?
Comparing the performance of different age groups at the same time
What are the cons of a cross-sectional design?
Cohort effects (may be a reason for differences across generations) - may over estimate age decline
What are longitudinal studies?
Tests the same participants across time
Minimises cohort effects
What could be a potential issue with longitudinal studies?
Individuals that are in poorer health may not return for alter testing - may lead to an overestimation of skills as those that are in better health are the ones providing the data
What kind of things decline with age?
Motor, sensory and intellectual functioning
Skin, bone and muscular declines
Cardiovascular and respiratory changes
What physical changes occur to the brain?
Brain weight decreases, with declines accelerating after 60 years
Neuronal loss
Blood flow to the brain is decreases (furthering neuronal loss)
Losses in sensation and perception are said to occur in 2 ways, what are these?
Increased sensory thresholds (something has to be louder or brighter for you to notice)
Decreased sensitivity to low-level stimulation
Explain changes in vision?
All components of the visual system change with age
Pupils become smaller and less adaptive (takes longer to adapt when you go out in the light)
Lens becomes denser and less flexible (can’t accommodate for close things like you used to)
Visual acuity declines steadily
What percentage of adults aged over 75 have good corrected vision?
75%
non-corrected poor visual acuity leads to….
Reduced quality of life
What are the different kinds of visual problems? (% in those age 70+)
Glaucoma 9% Cataracts 57% Macular degeneration 6% Retinopathy (diabetes) 4% Other 20% Workplace eye injuries 4%
Explain attention in older adults
Older adults are less able to divide attention
Problems selectively attending to stimuli while ignoring distractions
Processing visual information is the hardest when it is
Complex and novel
How much more likely are hearing impairments compared to vision?
3x more likely
Where do most hearing problems physically originate from?
The inner ear
Are there any gender differences in hearing declines with age?
Men lose hearing sensitivity earlier and faster than women - may be because of industrial jobs
For older individuals to understand conversation, what is important
Listening conditions
No increased attention demands (e.g. an accent)
Auditory perception is more difficult when the task is novel or complex and listening conditions are poor
There is a general decline in the perception of odour, what makes it worse?
Disease, smoking, some medications
Explain touch sensitivity across the lifespan
Begins to gradually decline from middle childhood
