Cognition

Cognition refers to an individual's mental abilities including memory, attention, language, decision-making, performing tasks, and spatial awareness. As we age, some of our cognitive abilities may decline over time, but with normal aging these declines do not significantly impact our ability to perform day to day tasks. Cognitive impairment, however, can lead to reduced independence, where individuals are no longer able to perform daily functions. In most individuals, these cognitive impairments increase gradually over time. The term mild cognitive impairment (MCI) refers to individuals who are found to have problems with memory and thinking on cognitive tests but remain independent in their day-to-day functioning (Peterson et al. 1999), although these activities may take longer to complete. When a person’s degree of cognitive impairment causes them to be unable to perform daily tasks and activities they were previously able to complete independently, they are considered to have dementia. Dementia has many different causes, most of them being neurodegenerative diseases, for example Alzheimer’s disease.