What if there's no such thing as "aging"?. (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cohen, Alan A.; Legault, Véronique; Fülöp, Tamàs
• Is Part Of: Mechanisms of ageing and development. Volume 192(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: Bow-tie -- Complex systems -- Information theory -- Linguistics -- Neural network -- Paradigm -- Philosophy of science -- Sapir-Whorf; Aging -- Periodicals; Developmental biology -- Periodicals; Aging -- Periodicals; Developmental Biology -- Periodicals; Vieillissement -- Périodiques; Biologie du développement -- Périodiques; Aging; Developmental biology; Periodicals; 612.67
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mad.2020.111344
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0047-6374

Abstract

Highlights: Our mental categories tend to correspond to our linguistic categories. We argue there is no biological phenomenon that corresponds to the word "aging". We show how the concept of "aging" misleads us from asking the right questions. We lay out a path for aging research without the concept of "aging" itself. We advocate gradual abandonment of the word "aging" in scientific contexts. Abstract: Are diseases caused by aging? What are the mechanisms of aging? Do all species age? These hotly debated questions revolve around a unitary definition of aging. Because we use the word "aging" so frequently, both colloquially and scientifically, we rarely pause to consider whether this word maps to an underlying biological phenomenon, or whether it is simply a grab-bag of diverse phenomena linked more by our mental associations than by any underlying biology. Here, we consider how the presence of the colloquial word "aging" generates a cognitive bias towards supposing there is a unitary biological phenomenon. We ask what kind of evidence would support or refute that idea, and subsequently show clear evidence at multiple levels that aging is not a unitary phenomenon. In particular, the known aging pathways lead to heterogeneous outputs, not a single coordinated phenomenon. From levels ranging from cellular/molecular to clinical to demographic to evolutionary, we show how the supposition that aging is a unitary phenomenon can mislead and distract us from asking the best questions. For major sub-disciplines of aging biology, we show how going beyond the notion of unitary aging can hone the paradigm and help advance the pace of discovery.