On Election Day, former president Donald Trump will be 78 years old, and President Biden will be a couple of weeks shy of 82. In a Marquette Law School poll conducted in March, 77 percent of registered voters said they consider Biden “too old to be president,” while 52 percent said that of Trump. But this public discussion of the aging brain ― a scientific topic if ever there was one ― has been conducted largely without reference to any scientific facts. But medical and scientific experts warn that media reports and punditry about the candidates’ mental fitness have been marred by misinformation about the aging process. They were more eager to speak about the aging process generally and what science can reveal about the aging brain — what’s normal, what’s pathological and how to discern the difference.

Source: Washington Post May 19, 2024 05:15 UTC