Do you think with old age comes wisdom?

Wise enough to keep it to myself. Try to pass it on to someone younger and they think you're screwed up, until they learned for themselves.
 

seadoug said:
I think it comes with wisdom based from experience, that is if we learn from our experiences.
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Yeah I was going to say. I have more EXPERIENCES because I'm older but deep down I would prefer to be a super healthy cute young'un feeling full of genuine energy and enthusiasm everyday.
 
Naturally said:
Strictly from a factual scientific level, here's one article about How the brain changes with age
If interested, Google will find others and many are similar ...
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rhesus monkeys and mice do not read many history or philosophy books and I don't think they pay attention to how it is to be a child, then a parent, then a grandparent, and then a great-grandparent. Having experienced all these life phases I am very impressed by how we see things so differently over a lifetime.

We think about what we think and I don't think rhesus monkeys or mice think about what they think. So while your link is to a scientific explanation, I bet it would be different if those doing the research were older. I think their analysis of the data is missing life experience.
 
Vida May said:
rhesus monkeys and mice do not read many history or philosophy books and I don't think they pay attention to how it is to be a child, then a parent, then a grandparent, and then a great-grandparent. Having experienced all these life phases I am very impressed by how we see things so differently over a lifetime.

We think about what we think and I don't think rhesus monkeys or mice think about what they think. So while your link is to a scientific explanation, I bet it would be different if those doing the research were older. I think their analysis of the data is missing life experience.
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Not sure what link you may have followed and read, if you read at all, but there is no mention of monkeys and mice at the link I provided.
Maybe you can post a link to the article you are talking about? Thanks :)
 
fuzzybuddy said:
To be honest, I don't know if I'm all that much wiser than I was 20 years ago. Yeah, there's a difference in being 18 and 39. I think once you get to a certain age, you're about a wise as you're going to be. Do you think with old age comes wisdom?
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That might be accurate, Fuzz. Somewhere between 35 and 40, you realize you had some things wrong, but now you have it all figured out (talking about men, specifically), so maybe you get stuck there, not open to more changes or suggestions.

That was me by age 40. I'd been raising my kids by myself and they were becoming good people, and very healthy, my home ran like a freaking Swiss watch, I was always employed, getting promotions, saving plenty of money...no one could tell me anything I didn't know. Well, except for the older guys at work. I still learned a lot from them. But where it came to How 2 Live, my mind was a steel trap.

...until recently.
 
Naturally said:
Strictly from a factual scientific level, here's one article about How the brain changes with age
If interested, Google will find others and many are similar ...
Click to expand...
Very interesting. I click on the link in your post and get this information.

"In a study of rhesus monkeys, scientists found the aging process targets a certain class of spines called thin spines. These small, slender protuberances are also highly plastic structures, extending and retracting much more rapidly than the larger “mushroom” class of spines. This has led scientists to speculate that thin spines might be involved in working memory, which requires a high degree of synaptic plasticity. The loss of thin dendritic spines could impair neuronal communication and contribute to cognitive decline."

What could have happened if this is not from your link?
 
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In my younger days I was pretty ridgid about family ....raising kids, walking the straight and narrow, the church scene...after many of life's 'slap in the face events' my outlook changed on what's important... I became wiser or maybe I just grew up....kinda makes you want to tell the kids...do this and don't do that but it's a process to be learned, sad, that sometimes it takes so long, as in my case.
 
Vida May said:
Very interesting. I click on the link in your post and get this information.

"In a study of rhesus monkeys, scientists found the aging process targets a certain class of spines called thin spines. These small, slender protuberances are also highly plastic structures, extending and retracting much more rapidly than the larger “mushroom” class of spines. This has led scientists to speculate that thin spines might be involved in working memory, which requires a high degree of synaptic plasticity. The loss of thin dendritic spines could impair neuronal communication and contribute to cognitive decline."

What could have happened if this is not from your link?
Click to expand...

AH HA !!! ... I apologize
I had to do a word search for "monkeys" using my browser "Find in page ..." feature to find that passage in the discussion of "Neuronal Changes".

Thing is though, that was just an anecdotal mention, and not the basis of the entire article.

Elsewhere the article mentions human studies:
- Seattle Longitudinal Study, which tracked the cognitive abilities of thousands of adults over the past 50 years
- ...in a 2018 study, researchers failed to find any evidence of new neurons in adult brains.
- One study found 60- and 70-year-olds with mild cognitive impairment had less serotonin in their brains

Furthermore if you click on the "+" sign next to "References" at the bottom of the page, you will find a long list of studies from which information was drawn. MOST of which was from human studies ... but also include rats as well as monkeys LoL.

At the end of the day, there was one(1) mention of a study involving monkeys and it was not, and is not the basis of the article as a whole in its entirety. To focus on that one monkey mention and therefore dismiss the content of the article as a whole is what I would politely call "cherry picking". YMMV ... and I respect that :)


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From the linked article ...

References​

Bender, A. R., Völkle, M. C., & Raz, N. (2016). Differential aging of cerebral white matter in middle-aged and older adults: A seven-year follow-up. NeuroImage, 125, 74–83. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.10.030

Burke, S. N., & Barnes, C. A. (2006). Neural plasticity in the ageing brain. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 7(1), 30–40. doi: 10.1038/nrn1809
Dickstein, D. L., Weaver, C. M., Luebke, J. I., & Hof, P. R. (2013). Dendritic spine changes associated with normal aging. Neuroscience, 251, 21–32. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.09.077

Fjell, A. M., Westlye, L. T., Amlien, I., Espeseth, T., Reinvang, I., Raz, N., … Walhovd, K. B. (2009). High consistency of regional cortical thinning in aging across multiple samples. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y.: 1991), 19(9), 2001–2012. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhn232

Harada, C. N., Natelson Love, M. C., & Triebel, K. L. (2013). Normal cognitive aging. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 29(4), 737–752. doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2013.07.002

Hedman, A. M., van Haren, N. E. M., Schnack, H. G., Kahn, R. S., & Hulshoff Pol, H. E. (2012). Human brain changes across the life span: A review of 56 longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging studies. Human Brain Mapping, 33(8), 1987–2002. doi: 10.1002/hbm.21334

Hof, P. R., & Morrison, J. H. (2004). The aging brain: Morphomolecular senescence of cortical circuits. Trends in Neurosciences, 27(10), 607–613. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2004.07.013

Jernigan, T. L., Archibald, S. L., Fennema-Notestine, C., Gamst, A. C., Stout, J. C., Bonner, J., & Hesselink, J. R. (2001). Effects of age on tissues and regions of the cerebrum and cerebellum. Neurobiology of Aging, 22(4), 581–594. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11445259

Kaasinen, V., Vilkman, H., Hietala, J., Någren, K., Helenius, H., Olsson, H., … Rinne, J. (2000). Age-related dopamine D2/D3 receptor loss in extrastriatal regions of the human brain. Neurobiology of Aging, 21(5), 683–688. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11016537

Kuhn, H. G., Dickinson-Anson, H., & Gage, F. H. (1996). Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the adult rat: Age-related decrease of neuronal progenitor proliferation. Journal of Neuroscience, 16(6), 2027–2033. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.16-06-02027.1996

Kumakura, Y., Vernaleken, I., Buchholz, H.-G., Borghammer, P., Danielsen, E., Gründer, G., … Cumming, P. (2010). Age-dependent decline of steady state dopamine storage capacity of human brain: An FDOPA PET study. Neurobiology of Aging, 31(3), 447–463. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.05.005

Meltzer, C. C., Smith, G., DeKosky, S. T., Pollock, B. G., Mathis, C. A., Moore, R. Y., … Reynolds, C. F. (1998). Serotonin in aging, late-life depression, and Alzheimer’s disease: The emerging role of functional imaging. Neuropsychopharmacology: Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 18(6), 407–430. doi: 10.1016/S0893-133X(97)00194-2

Morrison, J. H., & Baxter, M. G. (2012). The Aging Cortical Synapse: Hallmarks and Implications for Cognitive Decline. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 13(4), 240–250. doi: 10.1038/nrn3200

Nilsson, L.-G., Sternäng, O., Rönnlund, M., & Nyberg, L. (2009). Challenging the notion of an early-onset of cognitive decline. Neurobiology of Aging, 30(4), 521–524; discussion 530-533. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.11.013

Ota, M., Yasuno, F., Ito, H., Seki, C., Nozaki, S., Asada, T., & Suhara, T. (2006). Age-related decline of dopamine synthesis in the living human brain measured by positron emission tomography with L-[beta-11C]DOPA. Life Sciences, 79(8), 730–736. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2006.02.017

Raz, N., Lindenberger, U., Rodrigue, K. M., Kennedy, K. M., Head, D., Williamson, A., … Acker, J. D. (2005). Regional brain changes in aging healthy adults: General trends, individual differences and modifiers. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y.: 1991), 15(11), 1676–1689. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhi044

Salthouse, T. A. (2009). When does age-related cognitive decline begin? Neurobiology of Aging, 30(4), 507–514. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.09.023

Sowell, E. R., Peterson, B. S., Thompson, P. M., Welcome, S. E., Henkenius, A. L., & Toga, A. W. (2003). Mapping cortical change across the human life span. Nature Neuroscience, 6(3), 309–315. doi: 10.1038/nn1008

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Yin, J.-A., Liu, X.-J., Yuan, J., Jiang, J., & Cai, S.-Q. (2014). Longevity manipulations differentially affect serotonin/dopamine level and behavioral deterioration in aging Caenorhabditis elegans. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 34(11), 3947–3958. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4013-13.2014
 
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Naturally said:
At the end of the day, there was one(1) mention of a study involving monkeys and it was not, and is not the basis of the article as a whole in its entirety. To focus on that one monkey mention and therefore dismiss the content of the article as a whole is what I would politely call "cherry picking". YMMV ... and I respect that :)
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I do not think I was cherry-picking. I was looking at the science in your link and it is biological. Understanding the biology of the brain is not enough to understand the phenomena of gaining wisdom. The development of our brains depends largely on how we use our brains. Some people will gain wisdom and some will not, depending on how each uses their brain. This is not just a biological matter.

We can infer somethings about us by studying animals, but wisdom is not one of them. Humans have the potential for higher order thinking skills and animals do not.
 
As we age, we accumulate experiences. If we keep an "open pliable mind" so something can drop in, then we learn to translate actual experiences and learning into the application of wisdom. Otherwise we probably get "stuck in our ways" and more rigid as we age.
 
Alligatorob said:
Sometimes... kinda depends on how good we are at using our life experience. I know (in my case anyway) the mind slows down a bit, memory isn't as good, but for a while anyway those life experiences can counterbalance the losses.
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--Yes but unless one on path to full-blown Alzheimer's the memory lapses most of us have are: Names; Titles; what we moved from one room to another to do; what we were doing before the phone, a person or a pet needed our attention. Even with some forms of dementia one doesn't forget experiences that by themselves or combined with others gave some insight into becoming our best selves, having our best life without wreaking havoc on anyone else.
 
chic said:
Yeah I was going to say. I have more EXPERIENCES because I'm older but deep down I would prefer to be a super healthy cute young'un feeling full of genuine energy and enthusiasm everyday.
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Then become a bodybuilder

"Recent studies have indicated that vigorous aerobic exercise can improve memory and reasoning in people with mild cognitive impairment, which is often a precursor to dementia. A team of Australian researchers has been studying whether resistance training has a similar effect.

The team recruited 68 women and 32 men ages 55 through 86, all of whom had mild cognitive impairment, and randomly assigned them to two groups. One group did weight training twice a week for six months, lifting 80% of the maximum amount they could. The other did stretching exercises."
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/weight-training-may-boost-brain-power

As we decline it is a big boost to work out in the weight room and add another 10 pounds to the weight we lift or another 10 repetitions. It is satisfying when we lift something with ease when someone else finds it too heavy to lift.

Check out these older body builders if you want to be inspired to do the same.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...IHeTWDUMQjJkEegQIHBAC&biw=854&bih=540&dpr=1.5
 

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