Cognitive modifiability and brain plasticity in adult age

Abstract

What this contribution wants to emphasize is the possibility that in the same individual the typical involutional processes of the advanced age can coexist with the change, the modifiability and development: in other words a negative plasticity at any age is opposed to a positive plasticity.
Today, in the moment in which we have understood that the brain offers potential for change at any age, thinking and planning interventions to promote the cognitive modifiability in adulthood as well becomes meaningful.
An intentionally structured instrument to produce structural Cognitive modifiability in adulthood is the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment for Elderly, which is a path for development and recovery of the structures and the cognitive functions in the adult. This extension of the Program of Instrumental
Enrichment (PAS) is structured as a specific training for the elderly, aimed both at the recovery of cognitive functions in situations that have specific needs (dementias, memory leaks, disorientation) both as prevention and promotion of wellbeing.
Demonstrating how the plasticity of the brain and therefore the cognitive modifiability are conditions that characterize the entire life cycle of man, implies the responsibility to plan and realize significant and effective interventions. What until all fifties was only an effective intuition, is today a reality documented by a consistent scientific literature, which must result in the offer of new growth and development opportunities also in adulthood.