New Mental Challenges Can Sharpen Aging Brain: Study
included 39 older adults who were randomly assigned to high-
or low-mental challenge groups or to a control group.
Those participants in the high-challenge group spent at least
15 hours a week for 14 weeks learning increasingly more
demanding skills in digital photography, quilting or both. Those
in the low-challenge group spent 15 hours a week socializing
and doing activities related to such topics as travel and
cooking, but with no active learning.
Those in the control group did things such as listening to
music, playing simple games or watching classic movies.
All of the participants underwent brain scans and mental
skills tests before and after the programs, and some were
retested a year later.
After 14 weeks, those in the high-challenge group showed
better memory performance and could judge hard words more
accurately than those in the other two groups. And, some of
these improvements remained a year later, according to the
study published recently in the journal Restorative
Neurology and Neuroscience .
"The present findings provide some of the first experimental
evidence that mentally challenging leisure activities can
actually change brain function and that it is possible that such
interventions can restore levels of brain activity to a more
youth-like state," said senior author Denise Park, of the
university's Center for Vital Longevity and the School of
Behavioral and Brain Sciences. "However, we would like to
conduct much larger studies to determine the universality of
this effect and understand who will benefit the most from
such an intervention.
"Although there is much more to be learned, we are cautiously
optimistic that age-related cognitive declines can be slowed or
even partially restored if individuals are exposed to sustained,
mentally challenging experiences," she said in a journal news
release.
0 comments:
Post a Comment