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Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming older.The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal.
Gerontology (/ ˌ dʒ ɛr ən ˈ t ɒ l ə dʒ i / JERR-ən-TOL-ə-jee) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging.The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek γέρων (gérōn), meaning "old man", and -λογία (), meaning "study of".
Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. [1] Old age is not a definite biological stage: the chronological age denoted as "old age" varies culturally and historically. [2]
Senescence (/ s ɪ ˈ n ɛ s ə n s /) or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. Whole organism senescence involves an increase in death rates or a decrease in fecundity with increasing age, at least in the later part of an organism's life cycle.
For example, brain imaging studies have revealed that older adults are more likely to use both hemispheres when completing memory tasks than younger adults. [51] In addition, older adults sometimes show a positivity effect when remembering information, which seems to be a result of the increased focus on regulating emotion seen with age. [ 44 ]
A 46% decrease in spine number and spine density has been reported in humans older than 50 compared with younger individuals. [12] An electron microscopy study in monkeys reported a 50% loss in spines on the apical dendritic tufts of pyramidal cells in prefrontal cortex of old animals (27–32 years old) compared with young ones (6–9 years ...
A high percentage of this population happens to be older adults, but the fact that this exercise makes a difference in other populations as well, shows just how valuable it is. [112] Although it has been shown time and time again that the effects of resistance training on the older adult population are beneficial to cognitive function, these ...
This definition of immortality has been challenged in the Handbook of the Biology of Aging, [1] because the increase in rate of mortality as a function of chronological age may be negligible at extremely old ages, an idea referred to as the late-life mortality plateau. The rate of mortality may cease to increase in old age, but in most cases ...