 according to Dr. Alvaro Pascaleon, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. So while there is heightened risk of brain disease with age, he said, there are strengths and weaknesses at every age. Young people can learn new facts more quickly, for example, but elderly people can put those facts into the bigger picture, what's typically known as wisdom, he said. Additionally, people shouldn't rely on a single snapshot that might miss a high-functioning person's decline.