Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives

by Daniel J. Levitin

Now, with declining efficacy of the prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobe, along with overall shrinking brain volume and white-matter reduction, you can see why older adults can find it more difficult to integrate and act on the information coming in from multiple sources, and why they find multitasking especially difficult. This is why when we age, we can have a harder time both focusing and switching our attention. It’s why we get distracted. And it’s why we have trouble dealing with new technology, especially new cell phones: The brain has slowed down, it’s smaller, and the shaping of our brains by repeated exposure to existing structures in the environment has made it easier to deal with familiar situations but harder to deal with new ones.