On: Dementia Rate Drops Sharply, as Forecast

[Amadou]

If one phrase could sum up human (and probably all living creatures') physiology it would be, "Use it or lose it."

We are adapted to conserve resources so anything that requires resources to maintain will be reduced if we don't actively use it. Muscle tissue, brain cells, you name it if we don't use it it will atrophy.

[mikeash → Amadou]

Yes, but we know this from studying it, not because it's "intuitive".

[Amadou → mikeash]

Intuitive is just a synonym for "similar to previous experiences." Anyone who has regularly exercised or played a sport or even a musical instrument and then stopped knows about use it or lose it we even have a term for it, "being a little rusty."

[mikeash → Amadou]

And anyone who's exerted themselves physically for more than a few minutes at a time knows that the more you do it, the more tired and weak you become (short term). If "intuition" supports both, it says nothing.

[Amadou → mikeash]

I feel you are being disingenuous. We all have enough long-term memory to discern patterns beyond the short term and classify them as such.

[mikeash → Amadou]

Feel what you like, I don't care.

There are plenty of examples, both in nature and in the human body, of "use it or lose it" and "use it up and it's gone".