When age doesn’t have to do with mental decline

You can keep improving your mental sharpness at any age—even when you’re in your nineties.

Cognitive decline isn’t an inevitable consequence of getting old, and just spending a few minutes a day on brain-training exercises can keep you mentally sharp, say researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Even people in their nineties can enjoy the benefits of brain-training, such as improved thinking clarity, emotional well-being, and a sense of purpose.

The researchers are part of the Brain Health project which has recruited nearly 20,000 people to assess cognitive abilities as we age.  For their latest study, they tracked 3,966 adults aged from 19 to 94 for three years who completed daily activities that lasted for just five to 15 minutes.

Positive changes were observed even among participants in their eighties, showing that efforts to improve brain health can be beneficial long before symptoms or disease appear, and can be long lasting.

Engaging in the exercises every day was the strongest predictor of improvement, and trumped the usual factors that influence cognitive decline, such as of age, gender and education level.

Lori Cook, one of the researchers, said the findings challenge common assumptions about aging and cognition.  “Every brain is as unique as a fingerprint and has potential for growth.  This study challenges the prevailing narrative of inevitable cognitive decline, suggesting instead that brain health can be proactively cultivated at any age.”

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