Everyone sometimes forgets something or can’t think of a name quickly. As you get older, the thought of dementia may arise. But even if you regularly forget something, there is no need for dementia and the chance that it will remain just forgetfulness is very high. Although forgetfulness is not specific to the elderly, it is the elderly who are most affected by it. Dementia is also linked to an older age.
Memory loss in old age
Forgetting is the process by which things once stored in memory slowly disappear. The further away the storage moment is, often more and more is forgotten. Memory loss is a normal phenomenon as we grow older. The loss can become serious in diseases such as Korsakoff’s syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease. Brain damage can also cause memory loss, which can be temporary or permanent. Another cause can be extreme use of alcohol.
Aspects of memory
Human memory involves three aspects namely storage, retention and retrieval.
Storage
By repeating the information long enough, it is automatically stored in the memory. Initially this happens in short-term memory, but after sufficient repetition the information is stored in long-term memory. Storing things in short-term memory includes, for example, remembering a shopping list. This form of memory has a small capacity, unlike long-term memory. An example of storing in long-term memory is memorizing a poem. Saving not only applies to texts but also to images, sounds, smells, feelings and colors. Some of these things we only store for a short time, but others we can remember for a very long time.
Hold or keep
Information stored in long-term memory can be retained for a very long time. As we get older, information can sometimes become more difficult to obtain. Old information can also be overwritten by new.
Search back
Retrieval is about updating the existing knowledge. The retrieval may also have to do with a certain aspect, such as recognizing a photo of someone but no longer recognizing that person’s name. However, memory is not always reliable and someone may think they remember something that never happened.
Dementia
Dementia is a disorder of the intellectual abilities, including memory, and is caused by abnormalities in the brain. Nowadays the word dementia is usually pronounced with the stress on the last syllable, just like epilepsy. But the word epilepsy comes from Greek and dementia is derived from the Latin deméntia with the stress on the second syllable. The correct pronunciation of the word dementia is therefore actually with the stress on the second syllable.
More women than men
In addition to memory, dementia also affects orientation, problem-solving thinking and planning. Because dementia mainly manifests itself at a later age and there are more and more elderly people in Western countries, the number of cases of dementia is also increasing. This is particularly the case for women because there are more women in old age than men. Research in the United States has also shown that highly educated men and women may later develop dementia because the brain remains more active, which slows down the death of brain cells.
No longer recognize children
The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, in which short-term memory functions less well, while long-term memory is still fully intact. Memories of the past remain, but current events are no longer stored. An eighty-year-old who suffers from dementia may think he is sixteen years old. It is also common that due to a lack of memory, one’s own children are no longer recognized.
