IUBio

Affects on the nervous system with age.

Julie Chason jchason at s.psych.uiuc.edu
Thu Dec 12 14:27:52 EST 1996


rcb1 at LEX.LCCC.EDU (Ron Blue) writes:

>On 12 Dec 1996, Kevin Younge wrote:

>> I`m looking for information on the affects on the nervous system with 
>> age.
>> 
>> Any information would be greatly appreciated. 
>> kevincy at millcomm.com
>Right now I am a blank for the name of the article or the source.
>But it was a general journal in psychology that you would not
>normally jump to for a reference.  

>But the article discussed the following which is very relevant to
>your question:

>It appears that ALMOST all of the problems associated with aging
>on the nervous system may be linked to a critical limit on
>information overwrite during a time cycle.

Are you refering to Timothy Salthouse's Psych Review article?  (It sounds
like it, although I'm not sure why you wouldn't "normally jump to [Psychology
Review] for a reference.")    This really is a very well done article,
Salthouse is well respected and is the editor of Psych and Aging, but I'd
like to point out that this particular article is addressing changes in
cognitive processing, not the nervous system in general, and that his
general slowing model of cognitive change is not necessarily the last word
on the issue.  

Just thought I'd add my $0.02 worth.

Julie



>Now what does this mean.  There are timing circuits in the brain.
>The brain is configured or integrated probably with a reference
>frequency.  Then the clock starts running on the input from
>other nerves.  If the input does not occur it deteriorates performance.

>When we were younger we had a LONGER time to put in the input but
>as we age we have LESS time.  So intelligence or FLUID INTELLIGENCE
>is due to a lost in the ratio of stimulus/stimulus review/and coherence.

>IBM computers are very stupid.  They fire fast say 200 meg. hertz.
>Ricci is an intelligent NOID.  Her clock speed is about 28 hertz.
>So information can create Gaussian weights during an Ratio Enhanced
>calculation.  

>What this suggest then is that for humans the speed can be to fast or
>to slow.

>There was an interesting article in Science recently on developmental
>neuroscience that I believes relates to your interest.  Sorry I
>do not have the reference.  Stephen Black mentioned it recently in
>a post I believe.  Ron Blue






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