Getting An Accurate Picture

When we see, hear, taste, smell or feel something, the brain helps us to make sense of what we experience. It provides us with cognition. This term, which is heard more and more in senior care circles, is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as:

The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.

One reason why this term is more commonly used is the growth of diseases with the symptom of dementia which leads to the impairment of cognitive abilities. Another (lesser known) reason is that there are many Americans who are 71 years of age or older who have cognitive impairment without dementia. How many? A study completed by Duke University Medical Center in 2005 estimates that 5.4 million people (22% of this age group) were in this category in the year 2002.

The 2005 findings of the Cognitive and Emotional Health Project conducted by the NIH listed five major areas of cognitive ability that they measure to assess cognitive health.

• Learning and memory.
• Executive function abilities - concept formation and abstract thought.
• Language.
• Visuospatial abilities.
• Sustained attention.

The project also reported that a number of factors seem to protect against cognitive decline. Their findings are extremely logical. They include a better baseline of cognitive function to start with, higher education levels and higher socioeconomic status, the presence of emotional support, more physical exercise and better lung capacity, the moderate alcohol use, and the use of vitamin supplements.