Abstract

Background: Aging affects many functions including cognition. Changes in Memory, which is a cognitive function, occur in healthy aging. Aims &
Objective: To determine the effect of aging on memory in normal non-demented subjects in South India using the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) and a test of Delayed Recall.
Materials and Methods: The Wechsler Memory Scale and a test of Delayed Recall were administered to 50 controls aged 20-50 years (Group I), 50 subjects aged 60-75 years (Group II) and 50 subjects aged above 75 years (Group III).
Results: There was a significant difference in the Wechsler Memory Scale raw scores of the controls (Group I) vs. subjects aged 60-75 years (Group II),with a p- value of 0.001; as well as between controls (Group I) vs. subjects aged above 75 years (Group III),with a p- value of 0.000. Comparison of the subset scores between controls and subjects (Group II + Group III) revealed a significant decline (p = 0.000) in all subsets except Orientation and Digit Span. Conclusion: Our study revealed that there were memory changes with aging with many aspects of memory declining with age and others showing no significant difference