Page 147 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

Support the Aging Brain • 131

Remember that the best foods for us are the most brightly
colored ones.

Cataracts, another physical condition common to the aging
of our eyes, are a clouding of the lens. In fact, some say that
cataracts are inevitable, but we know some 90-year-olds who
don’t appear to have cataracts. Of course, they may just be ag-
ing at a different rate and they don’t show yet. The symptoms
of a cataract are double vision in one eye, colors appear less
bright, and decreased light sensitivity. The good news is that
cataracts are corrected easily by surgery.
It is also thought that reducing the eye’s exposure to ul-
traviolet light reduces damage to the lens. You should wear
sunglasses that are labeled indicating that they block 99 per-
cent of both Ultraviolet A and Ultraviolet B light. Wearing a
broad-brimmed hat while outdoors also reduces the amount
of ultraviolet light to which the eye is exposed.
One of the changes in our perceptions that research has
identified is that our perceptual window narrows. We do not
scan a large area as easily as when we were younger and
need to break a large visual area into smaller sections to
identify a target object. In other words, if we took our family
for an outing and stood looking at a picturesque street scene,
the younger members might take it all in at a glance. Older
members of the family might subconsciously break the street
into sections and look each one over for details. We need to
focus on smaller sections of the environment.
Upon occasion, I have “lost” my car in the parking lot.
So, while I try to look like I know where I am going, I begin
to scan the parking lot looking for my blue car among all the
other cars. I don’t have to slow down the scanning process
and check out the nonblue cars as I come across them. How-
ever, the blue cars are all potentially mine, and I have to
slow down and look more carefully to determine whether it
is my blue car. To increase my speed and accuracy, I need to
break the parking lot into sections and quickly scan one sec-
tion at a time instead of looking repeatedly over the entire
parking lot. Of course, if you have a general idea of where