The shunt towards, or away from, cognitive decline may happen decades before such decline becomes clinically evident. And known risk factors explain very little of that decline. That is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Ohio State University, who published their results in the Feb. 8, 2023, issue of PLOS ONE.

In their analysis, the team looked at both the absolute level of cognitive function in about 7,000 participants of the U.S. Health and Retirement Study at age 54, and at the decline in cognitive function from age 54 to 85. The study participants that were analyzed were born between 1931 and 1941. The results were reminiscent of the adage that the way to make a silk purse out a sow’s ear is to start with a silk sow.