Human cognitive aging: <i>Corriger la fortune?</i>
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This review by Ulman Lindenberger examines the mechanisms and malleability of human cognitive aging, challenging the view that cognitive decline is a fixed, inevitable consequence of senescence. The paper addresses the research question of how individual differences in cognitive trajectories arise and whether they can be modified through lifestyle and intervention. Motivated by demographic shifts toward older populations and advances in neuroscience, the author argues that cognitive development in adulthood is probabilistic and shaped by a dynamic equilibrium between accumulating biological damage and experience-dependent plasticity. The analysis synthesizes findings from longitudinal studies, cognitive neuroscience, and developmental psychology. Lindenberger distinguishes between "crystallized" abilities, which rely on accumulated knowledge, and "fluid" abilities, which depend on neural infrastructure and are more susceptible to age-related decline. The review highlights neurobiological changes associated with aging, including reduced gray and white matter volume, decreased dopaminergic neuromodulation, and compromised white matter integrity. It also incorporates the "supply-demand mismatch" model, which posits that cognitive plasticity is triggered when environmental demands exceed or fall below the brain’s functional supply, requiring prolonged mismatch to induce structural change. Key findings indicate that cognitive aging is highly variable across individuals and malleable within them. Longitudinal data reveal that 66% of variance in cognitive change is shared across tasks, suggesting a strong general component to aging. Structural brain changes, such as shrinkage in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, are interdependent and correlated with cognitive performance. Importantly, the paper demonstrates that experience-dependent plasticity persists into late adulthood. Evidence from intervention studies, such as the COGITO and SPACE studies, shows that cognitively demanding training can improve performance and maintain hippocampal volumes in older adults, whereas control groups exhibit decline. These interventions produce transfer effects to latent cognitive abilities, not just task-specific skills. The significance of this work lies in its implication that cognitive aging is not strictly genetically programmed but is open to modification by vascular, metabolic, and lifestyle factors. The author concludes that leading an intellectually challenging, physically active, and socially engaged life can mitigate losses and consolidate gains. By identifying contexts and mechanisms of successful aging, the review suggests that science and society can intervene to postpone cognitive decline, offering a framework for understanding how to "correct fortune" in the face of biological aging.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | OpenAlex-citations | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| archive | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-20 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.