Forgetting dates doesn’t mean President Biden's decision-making or cognitive fitness is failing: Doctors

Biden was recently described as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” but doctors say it’s impossible to use isolated examples to diagnose a memory problem.

In a special council report released last week, President Biden was described as an "elderly man with a poor memory," but doctors say it’s impossible to use isolated examples to diagnose a memory problem, as memories can be impacted by more than aging, and memories don’t solely determine a person’s cognitive fitness. The President has a team of medical professionals from a number of subspecialties including neurology who evaluated him last year and deemed him "fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency."

"There are different variables that have to be taken into account when you try and understand whether a slip up is worrisome or not," Dr. Leah Croll, board-certified neurologist, and assistant professor of neurology at Temple University, told ABC News.

This report has since sparked criticism of Biden’s memory, to which Biden has responded in an interview that, "my memory is fine." Adding that the most recent interviews with the special council were also in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack in Israel when Biden said he was "in the middle of handling an international crisis."

ABC News spoke to several doctors in the field of medicine, neurology and psychiatry to understand how memory, aging and executive functioning relate, and they all agree that simply forgetting dates or timelines in the past does not imply anything specific about a person’s level of cognitive fitness, decision-making, judgement or executive functioning.