Older people not so grumpy after all!

Wednesday, 31 March 2010

It seems that we can now lay the image of the stereotypical grumpy old man or woman firmly at rest. In fact, while Victor Meldrew may not believe it, older people apparently have such a wealth of experience and resources accumulated over their years that they can more easily than their younger counterparts choose to resource positive areas of their brain, rather than just focus on unpleasant occurrences that they have experienced.

Indeed, according to an interesting article in torontosun.com, researchers at Boston College and at the University of Aukland in New Zealand have found that the image of the grumpy old person may be a myth after all and that a totally different image may be more appropriate.

The research focused on two groups of people - one aged between 19 and 31 and the other ranging from 61 to 80 years old - two opposite ends of the spectrum. The researchers showed pictures to both groups while scientists mapped their brains' activity patterns. The pictures included happy ones such as one of a triumphant skier and sadder ones such as a wounded soldier.

One interesting result from the study among others was that the older group differed from the younger group in that they used their brains in different ways. These older people were able to tap into regions of brain that stored pleasant and positive memories, whereas the younger group were less inclined to do this.

It was also found that while the two age groups performed similarly as far as recalling darker images, the older group found it easier to remember and focus on pleasant, happy ones.

Dr Donna Rose Addis of the University of Aukland's Center of Psychology said that the study had not deliberately been designed to dispel the myth of the grumpy old person but rather it showed: "On average, older adults maintain positive wellbeing...in the face of increasing physical decline, illness and social losses."

Dr Addis continued: "The neural changes that underlie the "positivity effect, suggests that it is not that older adults are paying less attention to negative information, but that they have enhanced processing of positive information.”

While the study used age to separate the two groups of subjects it was careful to include both men and women on an equal basis so the results are not related to gender at all. Both sexes were equally able to recall happy memories more and more as they grew older.

What's this?