Can brain games help sharpen the aging mind?

Playing games, making crafts and hanging out with friends can decrease the risks of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease. A new study, published in JAMA Neurology, delves deeper into the association of neurocognitive function and mentally stimulating activities.

Mentally stimulating activities have been reported to reduce chances of developing MCI or Alzheimer’s, but evidence on long-term outcomes are scarce. This study—led by Janina Krell-Roesch, PhD, with the Mayo Clinic's Translational Neuroscience and Aging Program in Scottsdale, Arizona—examines the hypothesis that the association between mentally stimulating activities and the risk MCI.

The study included 1,929 participants aged 70 and older with normal cognitive function. Through April 2006 to June 2016, participants took part in the following mentally stimulating activities: computer use, craft activities, social activities, and playing games. Participants were measured at baseline and conducted changes in 15 month intervals.

Results after four years showed that playing games, crafting, using the computer and participating in social activities were associated with lower risks of developing MCI.

“In this population-based prospective cohort study, we observed that engaging in mentally stimulating activities in late life was associated with a decreased risk of incident MCI,” concluded Janina Krell-Roesch, PhD, and colleagues. “More specifically, playing games and engaging in craft activities, computer use, and social activities significantly reduced the risk of incident MCI. Our study could not disentangle why some mentally stimulating activities (for example, computer use) had a larger effect size on the decreased risk of incident MCI than other activities (eg, reading books). However, we speculate that a particular mental activity (for example, computer use) may require specific technical and manual skills and that these could be the factors that might be associated with a decreased risk of cognitive decline. Future studies may need to examine the specific mediation factors between a particular mentally stimulating activity and the decreased risk of incident MCI.”