Honing your brain’s processing speed could stave off cognitive decline. That’s the key takeaway from the latest findings of ACTIVE, a US-based clinical trial examining whether brain training exercises targeting either memory, reasoning or speed of thought can keep the ageing mind healthier for longer.
The trial was carried out using specialised software developed by a US health tech company called Posit Science. Some 2,802 healthy patients who were over 65 were put through 10 hour-long training sessions with various computer game-like exercises, followed by booster sessions 11 and 35 months later. The exercises were intended to either improve retention and recall, aid with pattern recognition and problem solving, or work the brain’s ability to identify and locate visual information as quickly as possible.
The research team then used healthcare records to monitor who went on to be diagnosed with dementia over the next two decades. The results suggested that those who had participated in the visual speed training fared best, with a 25 per cent lower risk of developing dementia compared with a control group who hadn’t received any training at all.
Michael Marsiske, a clinical and health psychology professor at the University of Florida and one of the study authors, described this finding as unexpected. “The biggest surprise for me was that a relatively short burst of cognitive speed training might ripple forward for more than 20 years, showing up as fewer dementia diagnoses in medical claims records,” he says. “That kind of long-term, real-world impact from such a modest intervention is relatively unprecedented.”
The exercise used in the trial which generated the most benefit is called Double Decision, where a car and a road sign appear on a landscape for a very short period of time, and players have to accurately identify where they were on the screen. As your performance improves, it becomes progressively harder. Posit Science have also designed a series of other exercises for working the brain’s processing speed, such as Eye for Detail, which acts as a workout for your eyes and brain as the leaves, butterflies and flowers dance around the screen – try it below.
According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, the trial results must be interpreted with a dose of caution, as they don’t prove that brain exercises will prevent dementia. However, neurologist Ronald Petersen, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says that the results and those of other studies indicate certain forms of brain training may delay the onset of cognitive impairment. “If it can keep you functioning at a higher level for a longer period of time, that’s probably worthwhile,” says Petersen.
So why might it work, and what other brain-stimulating games have been shown to aid cognition?
Boosting cognitive flexibility
As we age, Petersen says that our brain loses cognitive flexibility, something which affects everything from remembering people’s names to multitasking. This is driven by a variety of factors, from the atrophy or shrinkage of certain regions to the loss of connections between neurones, reducing the brain’s capacity for quick, dynamic adjustments.
The idea behind exercises like Double Decision or Eye for Detail is to give this a shake-up. “The training worked by forcing people to take in more visual information, more quickly, under tougher and tougher conditions,” says Marsiske. “Each time someone got better, the programme instantly made the task harder, which pushed the brain to speed up its processing and divide attention more efficiently, a kind of workout that strengthens the neural systems we use for everyday tasks like driving or navigating busy environments.”
You don’t even necessarily need to do them for a long time. Two years ago, a study carried out by a group of scientists at the University of Exeter showed that computerised brain training exercises are particularly good at improving attention span, while also eliciting smaller improvements in memory, thinking and problem solving. It also suggested that benefits could be achieved through spending just three minutes a day on such activities.
But there may be other ways to achieve this too.
Board games
A few years ago, I spent several weeks reporting on the Asian Games, a multi-sport event for Asian countries which vaguely resembles the Olympics, apart from the fact that it awards medals for “mind sports” including chess, Go, Chinese chess, and bridge. Covering such events illustrated the power of board games for healthy brain ageing, with the athletes’ lists including numerous competitors in their 70s and even 80s.
Research has consistently backed this up. One UK study found that people who regularly play board games seem to retain their faculties for longer in old age, with the findings suggesting that they experienced less cognitive decline between the ages of 70 and 79. Chinese researchers have also found that board games could even play a role in slowing the decline of people who have received a dementia diagnosis, with studies suggesting that checkers games like draughts can keep the brain cells active, while card games such as poker can improve memory and thinking performance, as well as communication abilities.
One of the advantages of these kinds of complex strategy games, according to Petersen, is that your brain is constantly being confronted with novel situations where it has to form a plan. “That’s enhancing cognitive flexibility,” he says. “You’re not just doing the same old; you’re being challenged with a new set of problems which you have to try and figure out.”
Jigsaws and crosswords
But there doesn’t necessarily need to be a competitive element. Some research has indicated that traditional word-based puzzle exercises such as crosswords or doing Sudoku can improve thinking in a diverse group of adults over the age of 50, including those with and without a genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Using data from more than 19,000 people, University of Exeter scientists found that the more regularly that people engage with these kinds of puzzles, the better they perform on tasks assessing attention, reasoning and memory.
“Crossword puzzles do make you go into your past recesses [of your memory] and try to recall words,” says Petersen. “Issues with word finding are a very common element of ageing, so this may combat that to a certain extent, as you’re actually trying to get into those semantic networks and sort of rejuvenate some of them.”
You can hone your brain by stopping by the Telegraph puzzles section with games like Cogs, which requires you to rotate blocks of letters to form longer words and phrases; mini crosswords for the time-pressed; and trivia games, which can prompt word recall.
Table tennis, tennis and bowls
Brain training also doesn’t necessarily need to be confined to indoor activities. Playing actual sports, whether that’s at the local bowls or tennis club, or a game of table tennis, can also be extremely beneficial for preserving cognition in multiple ways.
Just like brain training computer exercises, Petersen says that the physical actions of swinging a racquet and responding to a ball in real-time might be able to stave off some of the deterioration of the brain’s neural networks which occurs with age, impacting its processing speed.
But sports also incorporate exercise, which encourages blood flow to the brain, as well as the production of beneficial molecules such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, known as “the brain fertiliser” for its ability to stimulate the growth of new neurones and strengthen the connections between them.
“Physical sports have a brain protective effect, both directly and indirectly,” says Perminder Sachdev, professor of neuropsychiatry at UNSW Sydney. “They do increase brain reserve and also improve the body’s metabolic status, which is beneficial for brain health. They also have a social component which provides additional benefit, as we know that social isolation and loneliness are risk factors for dementia.”
Choose something you enjoy
But whether it’s a crossword, a game of tennis or regular practice sessions of Double Decision, Petersen says that the most important thing is to find a brain training exercise that you actually enjoy doing, because you’re more likely to do it regularly.
“Maintaining it is probably as important as anything, so if you like doing crossword puzzles, great,” he says. “If you like doing Sudoku, great.”
Having a positive mindset itself is also good for the brain, and Petersen says that actively feeling like you’re doing something to help you age better can make a world of difference. “I sometimes say that ageing need not be a passive process,” he says. “You can engage in that, and maybe doing something for yourself will be beneficial for you. So, I try to approach it from that perspective.”