3 ms·

I've thought about this a lot too. My grandparents stayed mostly functional into their late 80s, but I've developed a really high cognitive load for a few decad

I've thought about this a lot too. My grandparents stayed mostly functional into their late 80s, but I've developed a really high cognitive load for a few decades and experienced some pretty severe sleep deprivation for a couple of them. There's some genetic predisposition, too. I expect to be semi-functional but forgetful in old age. So, gradually, I've been building out a software architecture which I hope will be able to help. A simple text-based interface to start, some basic NLP, the ability to interface with a lot of different services. I want something familiar, with not too many dependencies (which is why it's not a web-based interface), that's forgiving of spelling and other errors.

Balgair 8y ago
Wait, learning more stuff makes Alzheimer's Disease worse off later? I get sleep deprivation, sure, but I'd have thought that if there is more stuff to forget, you'd be able to 'last longer'.
- thaumaturgy 8y ago
  Sorry, I didn't word that right. You're correct, the current literature suggests that there's a correlation between mental "exercise" and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. However, there appears to be a link between stress and stress-related hormones and increased amyloid accumulation (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905685/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905685/), so if the amyloid theory for dementia is correct, then there's a fine line between "fun" cognitive load and stressful cognitive load.
  - Balgair 8y ago
    Ahh! So a 'relaxed' style of reading and learning is the way to go then. Not under a deadline, so to speak. Need to get that cortisol out of the system.
jessriedel 8y ago
> experienced some pretty severe sleep deprivation Is this actually thought to cause Alzheimer's? Sleep deprivation leads to temporarily higher levels of a protein known to build up in Alzheimer's patients, but I think this is consistent with an explanation that folks without Alzheimer's clear that protein when they catch up on sleep. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-brain-alzheimers-plaques-protein https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-brain-alzheimers-p...
- thaumaturgy 8y ago
  Last I read, causation hadn't been established yet, although most of what I've read also suggests that "catching up" isn't a thing you can do for long-term sleep deprivation (one really bad example: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-26630647 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-26630647 ... I don't seem to have bookmarked better citations for that).
  - jessriedel 8y ago
    25% cell death in a cell subpopulation in mice from 3 mights of bad sleep!? That's such an extreme effect from one study in such different animal, it really can't be useful for extrapolation.

Balgair 8y ago

Wait, learning more stuff makes Alzheimer's Disease worse off later? I get sleep deprivation, sure, but I'd have thought that if there is more stuff to forget, you'd be able to 'last longer'.

thaumaturgy 8y ago
Sorry, I didn't word that right. You're correct, the current literature suggests that there's a correlation between mental "exercise" and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. However, there appears to be a link between stress and stress-related hormones and increased amyloid accumulation (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905685/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905685/), so if the amyloid theory for dementia is correct, then there's a fine line between "fun" cognitive load and stressful cognitive load.
- Balgair 8y ago
  Ahh! So a 'relaxed' style of reading and learning is the way to go then. Not under a deadline, so to speak. Need to get that cortisol out of the system.

jessriedel 8y ago

> experienced some pretty severe sleep deprivation Is this actually thought to cause Alzheimer's? Sleep deprivation leads to temporarily higher levels of a protein known to build up in Alzheimer's patients, but I think this is consistent with an explanation that folks without Alzheimer's clear that protein when they catch up on sleep. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-brain-alzheimers-plaques-protein https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-brain-alzheimers-p...

thaumaturgy 8y ago
Last I read, causation hadn't been established yet, although most of what I've read also suggests that "catching up" isn't a thing you can do for long-term sleep deprivation (one really bad example: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-26630647 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-26630647 ... I don't seem to have bookmarked better citations for that).
- jessriedel 8y ago
  25% cell death in a cell subpopulation in mice from 3 mights of bad sleep!? That's such an extreme effect from one study in such different animal, it really can't be useful for extrapolation.