Aging's Upside

This Wall Street Journal article talks about new research that found some brain functions improve with age:

But it's not all doom and gloom. An emerging body of research shows that a surprising array of mental functions hold up well into old age, while others actually get better. Vocabulary improves, as do other verbal abilities such as facility with synonyms and antonyms. Older brains are packed with more so-called expert knowledge -- information relevant to your occupation or hobby. (Older bridge enthusiasts have at their mental beck-and-call many more bids and responses.) They also store more "cognitive templates," or mental outlines of generic problems and solutions that can be tapped when confronting new problems.

The article concludes:

More research is coming. Although studies on aging have long focused on diseases such as Alzheimer's, scientists are increasingly investigating healthy aging, trying to discover which factors allow some people to resist the usual ravages of time, and to get a better sense of how well older adults can function.

You could imagine the parenthetical-- "how well older adults can function (while remaining in their homes)...."