Mentally stimulating activities that challenge and engage the brain, such as crossword puzzles, reading, or listening to the radio may help slow down cognitive decline – the gradual deterioration of thinking skills – but may encourage the acceleration of dementia later on during old age, says a report in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Study author, Robert S. Wilson, PhD, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, says that the study suggests that the benefits of holding back the first signs of cognitive decline may come at a cost – that cost being a faster progression of dementia later on in old age. “The question is..why does this happen?”, he added.
Activities which stimulate the mind may someway help the brain to function relatively properly, in spite of the accumulation of brain lesions which are linked to dementia, Wilson explains.
The researchers found that as soon as mentally active people are diagnosed with dementia, they are more likely to have more brain changes linked to dementia than individuals without a lot of mental activity. Consequently, mentally active people have a higher risk of experiencing a faster rate of cognitive deterioration once dementia begins.
Mental stimulation compresses the length of time a person spends with dementia; like pulling on a an elastic band – nothing happens until you let go, and then everything occurs at high speed.
Wilson said:
This reduces the overall amount of time that a person may suffer from dementia.
Wilson and team assessed the mental activities of 1,157 individuals all aged at least 65 years. None of them had dementia at the start of the study, which lasted 12 years. The participants answered questions about how often they took part in mental activities, such as playing games, going to the museum, watching TV, or listening to the radio. They answered by giving each activity a score, from one to five, with five being the mentally stimulating exercises they did most often.
During the initial six years the investigators noted that the rate of cognitive decline without cognitive impairment went down 52% for each point on the cognitive activity scale. For individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the average annual rate of decline rose by 42% for each point on the cognitive activity scale.
The authors concluded:
Mentally stimulating activity in old age appears to compress the cognitive morbidity associated with AD by slowing cognitive decline before dementia onset and hastening it thereafter.
Source: American Academy of Neurology
“Cognitive activity and the cognitive morbidity of Alzheimer disease”
R. S. Wilson PhD, L. L. Barnes PhD, N. T. Aggarwal MD, P. A. Boyle PhD, L. E. Hebert ScD, C. F. Mendes de Leon PhD, and D. A. Evans MD
Neurology 2010, doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181f25b5e
Published online before print September 1, 2010
Written by Christian Nordqvist