Understanding MindBrain

 
 
Random Article


 
Latest Posts
 

Ageing makes the imagination wither

 

 
Overview
 

 
Summary
 
 
 
 
 


 


Bottom Line

Memory decline in old age may also mean a less vivid imagination. Stitching together personal details gets harder as we get older. Old age does more than stealthily steal away our most cherished memories: it also seems to diminish our ability to imagine things. This finding, detailed in the January issue of the journal Psychological […]

0
Posted January 9, 2008 by thomasr

 
Full Article
 
 

Memory decline in old age may also mean a less vivid imagination. Stitching together personal details gets harder as we get older. Old age does more than stealthily steal away our most cherished memories: it also seems to diminish our ability to imagine things.

This finding, detailed in the January issue of the journal Psychological Science 1, supports the ‘prospective brain’ hypothesis, the idea that imagining the future and remembering the past rely on the same neural machinery.

“One implication of this study is that imagining is quite closely related to, and dependent on, remembering, perhaps more so than we previously realized,” says Dan Schacter of Harvard University.

In the study, Schacter and his team asked groups of young and old participants, with average ages of 25 and 72, respectively, to recount a personal episode from their past or imagine a personal experience in their future in response to cue words.

Nature News


thomasr

 


0 Comments



Be the first to comment!


Leave a Response