'Dumbledore Hypothesis' Shows Challenge Aids the Aging Brain

Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, a dedicated researcher in the field of learning throughout the life span, presented a paper at an American Psychological Association Conference in San Francisco on August 19. The topic of her research was our capacity to control deficits in memory that occur with aging specifically in the areas of retaining information garnered from reading.

Often times older adults joke half-heartedly about memory loss, while actually masking genuine concern that there is little or nothing they can do to prevent the occasional lapse from progressing to something more serious. Stine-Miller's presentation addressed "the viability of the Dumbledore Hypothesis of Cognitive Aging -- that it is our pattern of choice to engage intellectual challenge that contributes to cognitive vitality, far more than the senescence process." The title for her paper came courtesy of a passage from the third book in the Harry Potter series, where in the character Dumbledore states, "It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" (Rowling, 1999, p. 333).

Stine-Miller's work examined the way in which older adults process information, as tested through experiments in reading and the way the brain allocates its resources to the task. Adults who had a past history of working in an environment that was mentally stimulating and/or participating in leisure activities that were equally challenging seemed to have set a pattern that continued into later adulthood in terms of being able to meet the challenges often times presented by an aging brain.

While it is undeniable that aging does bring certain changes in cognition (thinking and how that affects our behavior), Stine-Miller's research gave a positive spin on the process not always seen at the news today. While the media extols the virtues of leading a healthy active life, the Dumbledore Hypothesis seeks to explain how and why that can be impacted by personal choice. The study also referenced the importance of cognitive reserve (experiences over a lifetime provide alternative neural pathways when pathology does start to take place). Older adults who had created these reserve neural pathways earlier in life fared better when it became necessary for them to start using alternative ways of approaching memory based skills.

The study also referenced the fact that older adults who were part of a separate study where they participated in activities that "trained" their brains in specific areas (speed, reasoning and cognition) showed positive affects of such training up to five years later. Another aspect of the study that proved interesting was that senior readers were more likely to allocate the additional effort and energy needed to retain information when their was a social motivation. The example given was retaining information to tell a story to a child, versus retaining information just to relay it back to a researcher.