Older people store too much information in the brain, which leads to memory impairment. The corresponding article was published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

In the course of everyday life, people need to constantly suppress the flow of unnecessary information that does not benefit the current business. For example, while driving a car, you need to focus on the road, and not listen to the song on the radio.

Lynn Hasher of Canada's Rothman Research Institute and her colleagues have shown that the capacity for such suppression declines with age. As a result, the brain of older people is overloaded with unnecessary information, and memory begins to suffer.

“When older people try to remember a particular detail, they have difficulty because that detail can be connected to many others in their brain. Imagine that you need to remember the last name of one of the five Johns you know. It will be more difficult than if you only knew John. Something similar happens when older people try to remember something,” the authors explain.

To find out, scientists conducted experiments. Volunteers were given cards with a picture and text written over them. People were warned to memorize the picture, and extraneous text exists to distract attention. It turned out that older people remember interference better than younger people. For example, if “hydrogen” was written on one of the cards, then the old people answered the question “what element of the Sun is the most abundant?” faster and better.

The same thing happened in the electronic study of brain activity. People were shown two pictures, important and unimportant, and the elderly, judging by the data of the devices, memorized both.

The researchers conclude that the observed phenomenon may lead to memory problems, but, on the other hand, may also be beneficial. For example, remembering many details is likely to lead to better decisions.

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