As individuals age from 60 to 80 years old, significant changes occur in their decision-making capacities due to various neurological alterations. These changes encompass structural modifications in brain anatomy, neurotransmitter fluctuations, cognitive shifts, and functional adjustments, collectively impacting both automatic and deliberate decision-making systems.

A fundamental rule of the human body is “Use it, or lose it.” These changes make the use of the deliberate system more difficult to access, and results in a tendency to use the Automatic system only. The result is difficulty adapting to changes and making progress with need fulfillment on a daily basis, changes that neurologist call Cognitive Rigidity. The most significant changes include:

Structural Changes:

• Gray Matter Reduction: Age-related decline in gray matter volume, especially in memory, attention, and executive function regions, affects cognitive functions crucial for decision-making, such as memory retrieval and problem-solving.
• White Matter Integrity: While compensatory changes may occur, alterations in white matter integrity can disrupt connectivity between decision-making brain regions, potentially compromising efficiency.

Neurotransmitter Changes:

• Dopamine Decline: Reduced dopamine levels impair reward processing and motivation, leading to decreased sensitivity to rewards and increased risk aversion.
• Serotonin Fluctuations: Changes in serotonin levels influence emotional regulation during decision-making, affecting risk perception and affective responses.

These structural changes result in observable functional changes in decision making including:

Cognitive Changes:

• Slower Processing Speed: Decline in processing speed delays information integration and response execution, impacting decision-making efficiency.
• Memory Impairment: Age-related changes in memory function affect the ability to recall relevant information and engage in prospective memory, hindering both automatic and deliberate decision-making processes.

Functional Changes:

• Prefrontal Cortex Alterations: Structural and functional decline in the prefrontal cortex affects cognitive control and long-term planning, leading to difficulties in impulse regulation and decision-making.
• Amygdala Responsivity: Altered amygdala function influences emotional regulation during decision-making, affecting the interplay between automatic and deliberate systems, making the automatic system more dominant as the brain will more likely down regulate from the deliberate system.

Deliberate System Impacts:

• Reduced Sensory Input: Declines in sensory acuity affect information encoding, potentially leading to unawareness of changes and difficulties in attending to cues.
• Attention and Working Memory Decline: Aging is associated with decreased attentional control and working memory capacity, impacting decision-making, especially in maintaining focus and considering multiple perspectives.
• Impaired Cognitive Flexibility: Reduced cognitive flexibility limits the exploration of diverse decision options, leading to rigid thinking and difficulty in adapting to new information.

Outcome Monitoring and Feedback Processing:

• Less Efficient Error Detection: Older adults may show reduced error detection efficiency, hindering adjustment of decision strategies based on feedback.
• Challenges in Updating Beliefs: Age-related changes in cognitive flexibility hinder belief updating, impacting responsiveness to feedback and adaptive decision-making.

Neural plasticity and Assistive Technology

For individuals aged 61 to 80, decision-making continues to be crucial for navigating various life roles and achieving personal, familial, and community goals. How then can the senior decision maker maintain these capacities? The key is neural plasticity, and the ongoing practice of decision making to increase availability of the deliberate decision making system. The tendency in the senior brain is to develop Cognitive Rigidity, in which the Automatic system becomes more dominant, and the deliberate system becomes less available. This becomes a self propagating cycle, in which increased reliance on the Automatic system strengthens its pathways, and decreasing access to the deliberate system results in reduction of synapses in the system.

Physical changes in a extremity can be mitigated by the use of assistive devices and technology such as a cane or walker. These can be used to improve the function of the senior despite the structural changes in an extremity. The use of the assistive device is beneficial in that it promotes that area to practice moving in a way that stimulates improved strength and function over time. The same is expected in using assistive technology that is organized around the neural processes of decision making. This technology would help seniors make successful decisions over time and concurrently stimulate and strengthen the areas of the brain that perform decision making.

The DDM tools and services are designed around the automatic and deliberate decision making processes innate to the brain. We use these processes to meet needs and perform in the important roles that we have throughout our lives. The life roles during this period typically include:

Maintain Independence and Strengthen Your Decision Making by Starting Today by Accepting the FREE DDM Membership.