Neuroscientist Says Everyday Forgetfulness Is Often Not Dementia
A University of Washington neuroscientist says minor memory lapses are usually caused by stress or fatigue and that many early cognitive changes can be reversed through lifestyle and health interventions.
Misplacing keys or forgetting a name is often interpreted as an early warning sign of dementia, but a neuroscientist at the University of Washington says such everyday lapses are usually caused by stress, fatigue or a lack of attention rather than the onset of a neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Tommy Wood, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience, said the distinction matters because people who fear inevitable decline may be less likely to take the steps that can protect their cognitive health.
Speaking at Strong New York, the city's largest annual fitness and wellness festival, Wood explained that memory formation unfolds in three stages: encoding, when a memory is formed; consolidation, when it is stored; and retrieval, when it is accessed. When someone is stressed or sleep-deprived, the problem is typically retrieval, he said. The memory exists in the brain, but the person struggles to bring it to mind in the moment. In contrast, people with a neurodegenerative disease often fail to encode the memory in the first place. «They don't even remember or notice that there's something going on,» Wood said. «If you're noticing something's not quite right, that's usually a good sign.»
Dementia is clinically defined as the loss of cognitive function severe enough to impair a person's ability to manage daily life independently. Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia account for 70% to 90% of cases, and many individuals show signs of both. Research indicates that at least half of dementia cases can be prevented by modifying lifestyle and health risk factors, including heart and metabolic problems as well as hearing and vision loss. Wood emphasized that addressing physical health issues, such as obtaining hearing aids or undergoing cataract surgery, directly reduces the risk of cognitive decline.
His focus on reversible causes aligns with guidance from the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, which note that several treatable medical conditions can mimic early dementia symptoms or contribute to subjective cognitive decline. Cleveland Clinic highlights that early clinical intervention is critical when people notice changes in brain fog or executive function. Wood said the brain's day-to-day performance is the output of everything it is dealing with, and that noticing a change leaves time to act. «If you expect decline, you won't do the things that will prevent decline from happening,» he said. «Believing that it's possible means you'll actually engage in these processes, and then through that, you can prevent a lot of this decline.»
For readers, the practical message is that memory complaints deserve attention but not panic. Wood's advice is to focus on attention when trying to remember something, because the brain needs to be told that information is important. He also pointed to the value of sleep, stress management and treatment of sensory and metabolic conditions. The difference between a retrieval problem and an encoding failure can shape whether a person seeks help or resigns themselves to decline, and that distinction may be one of the most useful things to understand about the aging brain.
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