How the Neurological System Changes with Age

1

Major Changes that Occur on the Neurological System Associated to Age The nervous system function is to controls the body’s motion, neural network, memories and involuntary activities for instance heart rate. With age, the functioning of the nervous system is altered, the number of nerve cell reduces and the effects vary from one person to another.

Processing on information is slowed because the nervous system conducts impulses at a slower rate. Some older people experience nervous system syndromes such as dementia and delirium.

Buy this excellently written paper or order a fresh one from acemyhomework.com

The central nervous system comprising of the brain and spinal cord undergoes a significant number of changes with age. The brain reduces in size; this affects learning and complicated mental tasks and can result to memory loss. Slowed nerve cell communication in some parts of the brain occurs. Blood supply to the brain also reduces, especially in people with atherosclerosis. Therefore, older people need more time and repeated instructions to process information because their intellectual performance is reduced.

With age, the intervertebral discs harden; have a higher tendency to break and parts of the spinal cord overgrow (Castelli et al., 2019). Therefore, the vertebral disc’s ability to cushion is less effective as a higher pressure is applied on them. This results to injury to the nerve fibers that play a very crucial role in balancing, strength and sensation.

Morphologically, the peripheral nervous system losses both myelinated and unmyelinated sensory fibers as one ages. This is caused by the reduced expression capability of the main myelin proteins. In addition, reduced expression of cytoskeletal proteins results to axonal degeneration. Functionally, the peripheral nervous system reduces the rate at which it transmits nerve impulses, reduced blood flow, less muscle activity and sensory processing disorder.

Dementia is a chronic syndrome characterized by alteration of cognitive ability out of range of the expectation of the normal aging. It deteriorates memory, understanding, planning, coordination, communication, reasoning and orientation. There are several causes of dementia the main one being Alzheimer disease.

Dementia causes involve alteration to the nerve cells function by either loss damage or degeneration. Symptoms vary from one person to another depending on the part of the brain 2

affected. Vascular dementia characterized mainly by disorientation is caused by interruption of blood flow to the brain (Moore & Dening, 2020). Presence of lewy bodies in the brain result to lewy body dementia.

Delirium is a mental disability that occurs rapidly resulting to confusion, difficulty in concentration, memory loss and disorientation. Delirium arises when the brain function is impaired hindering the brain function to send and receive signals. A number of factors can cause it. This includes; use of certain drugs, withdrawal from alcohol, an underlying medical condition such as stroke, pain, fever, chronic illnesses, inadequate sleep and head injury among others (Moore & Dening, 2020).

Both dementia and delirium affect the brain function and have some similarities in their symptoms. Both affect the old population, manifest with confusion, memory loss and disorientation. Both delirium and dementia patients require support from caregivers and families when their cognitive function is altered and symptoms manifest.

It is important for healthcare providers to differentiate dementia and delirium for proper effective management. Whereas onset of delirium is acute, the onset of dementia is chronic and takes a longer period. Unlike dementia, delirium can be reversed when the main underlying cause is resolved. Delirium symptoms are variable throughout the day and worsen at night while dementia is progressive (Moore & Dening, 2020).

3

References

Castelli, V., Benedetti, E., Antonosante, A., Catanesi, M., Pitari, G., Ippoliti, R., ... & d’Angelo, M. (2019). Neuronal cells rearrangement during aging and neurodegenerative disease: 4

metabolism, oxidative stress and organelles dynamic. Frontiers in molecular neuroscience, 12, 132.

Moore, A., & Dening, K. H. (2020). When dementia and delirium come together. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 14(2), 90-97.

5