That friend of yours who starts her day with a challenging crossword puzzle might be onto something.
In the late 1990s, nearly 3,000 older adults received brain training as part of a study that looked at how it impacted their thinking and memory.
Twenty years later, participants continue to reap the benefits.
Researchers say it is one of the first results from a large, randomized trial to demonstrate that any intervention, whether it’s cognitive training, brain games, physical exercise, diet or medicine, can lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
In the study, participants who received cognitive speed training were 25% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia in the next two decades.
That finding surprised the researchers themselves.
They believe the cognitive training might have had such long-lasting benefits because it was personalized. When a participant was successful, the task became harder.
The study involved more than 2,800 adults, ranging from 65 to 94 years old, who were randomly placed in groups for 10 training sessions. In each session, they were asked to do memory, reasoning or speed of processing tasks. Training sessions were at least an hour long.
The speed training required participants to process visual information on a computer screen and make quick decisions. Speed training might cause physical changes to the brain, leading to new and stronger connections between brain networks.
Speed, it seems, might be a key to not slowing down.