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Re:Dementia Rate Drops Sharply, as Forecast by Amadou on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @03:13PM (#6054092)
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.

Re:Dementia Rate Drops Sharply, as Forecast by mikeash on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @03:14PM (#6054099)
Yes, but we know this from studying it, not because it's "intuitive".
Re:Dementia Rate Drops Sharply, as Forecast by Amadou on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @06:06PM (#6055055)
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."
Re:Dementia Rate Drops Sharply, as Forecast by mikeash on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @06:52PM (#6055257)
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.
Re:Dementia Rate Drops Sharply, as Forecast by Amadou on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @07:29PM (#6055382)
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.
Re:Dementia Rate Drops Sharply, as Forecast by mikeash on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @08:38PM (#6055560)
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".