We are all living much, much longer and this raises a vital role for adult education to help maintain our physical and cognitive health into old age and help to combat the onset of dementia.
As our bodies age and we slow down and become physically weaker, so do our brains. Neurons that die are not replaced and gradually our brains begin to shrink and our ability to process information diminishes. We lose about 1 per cent of our adult brain capacity every year. This is normal and it will result in slower responses to questions and some memory loss. It is important to distinguish between this normal cognitive slowdown and cognitive impairment - ie, dementia resulting from damage to the brain because a condition like Alzheimer’s disease or a stroke.
In 1901, Dr Alois Alzheimer noticed the rapid memory loss and deterioration in one of his patients, Auguste Deter. The autopsy revealed that whole sections of her brain had simply withered away and died. Dr Alzheimer was the first to identify and examine what we now know as Alzheimer’s disease. Auguste was the first diagnosed patient and today there are 47 million cases worldwide with 520,000 in the UK. Alzheimer’s is the most extreme form of dementia.
Education cannot cure Alzheimer’s disease but it can have a marked impact on slowing down cognitive ageing. Research by Lynn Hasher, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, has highlighted that people aged 50 and above can outperform younger people in problem-solving, reasoning and creativity by drawing on much wider life experience and knowledge.
Our adult education services need to be proactive in highlighting the cognitive and health benefits of participation in learning and leisure activities. We are facing a crisis of care with too many older members of our society becoming infirm, suffering memory loss, loneliness and boredom. This isolation and lack of mental stimulation hastens cognitive ageing but we can take steps to help people to enjoy an active old age. Adult education can make a substantial difference by promoting the benefits of learning and related social engagement.
Learning something new in adult education
Stan Holley was named as the oldest student in England. He enrolled in Stourbridge College in the Midlands at the age of 87 in 2016 and successfully passed examinations in functional skills English and maths.
Dr Lara Boyd, the director of the Brain Behaviour Lab at the University of British Columbia, gave a TED Talk on neuroscience called ”After watching this your brain will not be the same”. The choice of title reflected the fact that any new learning or experience produces physical changes within grey matter in the form of new synaptic links.
The evidence of physical changes in the brain in response to new learning was first demonstrated by Dr Eric Kandel in research which earned him the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 2000. Dr Kandel’s research confirmed what had long been suspected: that our brains are not static but reflect neuroplasticity, ie, they continue to grow and develop deep into adulthood in response to everyday environmental and learning experiences.
Consequently, attending adult education classes and learning something new will have a highly beneficial impact on the brain. Learning a language or a musical instrument has been shown to really light up the brain in terms of the formation of new neural links. However, any new learning is beneficial whatever the skill or knowledge and we need to drive participation and remaining cognitively active into old age. Reading is one of the best habits to maintain but beware of investing in the rash of brain-training products entering the marketplace. Many make significant claims for improving cognitive function but there is little, if any, scientific evidence to underpin such claims.
In 2014, the Stanford University Center on Longevity released a statement signed by 75 leading neurologists warning against brain-training videos and online “smart” games. They may improve your ability to complete the task or game but they do not improve long-term cognitive abilities. You are just as well off reading a daily newspaper, reading books, completing jigsaws, Sudoko puzzles and crosswords, and playing chess and other board games.
A further significant benefit of enrolling in classes is simply social engagement. Interacting with other people is a significant factor in maintaining mental alertness. Adult education services should consider linking with the new PopUp College, which is expanding nationwide. It may attract more people into participation because of the novelty of holding classes in branches of Costa Coffee after normal closing hours. Adult education should also list and provide details of all social, leisure and sports groups within the relevant local area and encourage membership. Time for adult education to help push back dementia.
Bradley Lightbody is an educational author and presenter
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