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AI introduces novel, noninvasive ways to treat neurological disorders.

Studies suggest that the brain still responds to cognitive and linguistic training late in life.

Language training offers strong benefits for older adults in the typical and dyslexic population.

Can you change an 88-year-old brain? This question came up when Mr. JT Johnson, 88, started using an AI program to correct his dyslexia. Dyslexia is a common reading difficulty that affects 1 in 5 people (Yale Center for Dyslexia, 2022). It is classified as a learning disability in schools.

Although this neurological disorder is widely assumed to be incurable and thus lifelong, advanced AI technology has cleared the reading difficulty in some children, as validated by a university-run clinical trial (May & Van Horne, 2025).

Mr. Johnson saw on TV the case of a 9-year-old boy with dyslexia who used an AI program to overcome it. The 88-year-old man decided to give it a try. He was not the only one. When NBC Nightly News aired that feature, more than a quarter of the queries to the AI developers came from individuals in their 60s and older.

The Desire to Overcome Dyslexia Is Lifelong

I asked Mr. Johnson why he still wanted to change his dyslexia at this age. He said that this was a promise he had made to himself, that one day he would be able to read, just like everyone else.

For others, it was to know why. Why couldn't they read when others could? They knew it didn't have to do with intelligence or effort. Why was it that others who were not any smarter or more capable could read with ease, but they couldn't?

For yet others, their spouses worry late in life that when they are gone, their loved ones with dyslexia may find it harder to manage in a text-dependent world. Everyday matters such as filling out forms, and reading instructions and signs........

© Psychology Today