Video / Sharecare Experts / Majid Fotuhi, MD, PhD / How Does Normal Aging Affect Memory?

How Does Normal Aging Affect Memory?

How Does Normal Aging Affect Memory? (0:36)

The part of the brain that controls memory is called the hippocampus; it's very fragile and tends to shrink as we age, depending on different lifestyle factors. In this video, neurologist Majid Fotuhi, MD/PhD, explains how aging can affect memory.

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The part of the brain for memory is called hippocampus. This part of the brain is a size of your thumb, you have one on your right and one on left. Hippocampus has two unique capacities. One of them is that it's very fragile. The reason people become forgetful with aging is because hippocampus tends to shrink with many of factors in our lives, such as poor sleep, stress, anxiety, certain lifestyle, smoking and many other vasco risk factors that people are familiar with.