Plasticity
Plasticity In Human Aging
Plasticity is a principal theoretical issue in life-span developmental psychology. A rationale for its relevance to life-span theory was offered by Baltes, Staudinger, and Lindenberger (1999, p. 480), who concluded that an emphasis on plasticity "highlights the search for the potentialities of development, including the upper and lower boundary conditions. Implied in the idea of plasticity is that any given developmental outcome is but one of numerous possible outcomes, and that the search for the conditions and range of plasticity. . .is fundamental to the study of development." Implications of these ideas are especially pertinent to the study of decremental processes in aging, for they suggest that the decline may be reversed if enhancing experience (e.g., training, practice) is provided.
Accordingly, plasticity has been identified as a core theoretical issue in the study of adult cognitive development. Plasticity implies that some normal aging-related cognitive decline may be reversible. Indeed, research providing experience-enhancing interventions to older adults has produced results linking specific experience to particular behaviors and skills, ranging from intelligence and memory to leisure or professional expertise. Older adults who are provided with task-related experience (e.g., practice, strategies) in some domains may maintain or develop higher levels of performance than would have otherwise seemed possible. Phenomena of plasticity are relevant to theories of cognitive aging. Similarly, empirical evidence for plasticity provides fertile soil from which everyday interventions for normal aging-related losses may be generated.
Plasticity is a concept of considerable importance to understanding how human beings change as they become older—and how they could change given certain experiences. Applied to both biological and psychological aging, it offers a cautiously optimistic perspective, for it illustrates that there is both a neurological and psychological basis for guided interventions designed to enhance adaptation in late life.
ROGER A. DIXON ANNA-LISA COHEN STUART W. S. MACDONALD
See also LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT; MEMORY TRAINING; NEUROTRANSMITTERS.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Additional topics
Medicine EncyclopediaAging Healthy - Part 3Plasticity - The Concept Of Plasticity, Plasticity At The Neuronal Level, Plasticity In Human Aging