Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia diagnosed among older adults, per the National Institute on Aging. Loss of gray matter is a prominent feature of Alzheimer’s disease, note the authors of a study published in February 2021 in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. In fact, research published in July 2021 in The Journals of Gerontology revealed that greater social engagement is associated with healthier brain tissue, or gray matter, in regions related to social functions and protection from dementia. Unscramble words, fill in crossword puzzles, and solve word challenges to improve your vocabulary in a mentally stimulating way.įor Small, Words With Friends is both social and relaxing, “and these are all good things for your brain.” You can challenge friends or family members to play word games, or get matched with an opponent through the app. “Part of it is the social aspect of it,” he says. Words With Friends is one of Small’s personal favorites. After eight weeks of consistent training, those who completed the BrainHQ training saw greater improvements in memory and attention than those who did not. One group of adults trained in six of the exercises in BrainHQ for one hour a day, five days a week, while another group watched educational videos and took quizzes. The developers of BrainHQ sponsored a past study to measure the effects of BrainHQ on memory and attention in nearly 500 adults ages 65 and older who did not have cognitive impairment. Track your progress in the app and see how your performance compares with other users in your age group. Plus, each exercise continuously adapts to your performance, ensuring you train at the right level for you. Thankfully, each BrainHQ exercise is broken up into two-minute segments, making it easy to fit brain training into a busy schedule. Courses range in length from a few hours to more than 20 hours. With it, you can take courses to target a particular brain-training goal, from memory to brain speed, people skills, and more. This brain training app was designed by an international team of neuroscientists. Your mind may or may not benefit, but at the very least, you’ll have a little fun. Start with this list of six apps for potentially better brain health, selected based on top ratings on the App Store and Google Play, and listed in no particular order. While the findings are promising, many studies can only show an association between mental stimulation and a reduced risk of cognitive decline - they don’t prove cause and effect. “They’re primarily epidemiological studies, where you look at a large number of people and ask questions about their daily habits, and then you track them and see who declines cognitively,” he says. One major caveat: Small cautions against getting too excited about many of the studies behind the brain-health benefits of mental stimulation. “It’s important to find the sweet spot, where it’s not too difficult and it’s not too easy.” “What happens with some of these games is people just give up because it’s too much work,” Small says. The key is finding a game that’s challenging but still fun. Available only by prescription, EndeavorRx is the first game-based digital therapeutic treatment shown to improve symptoms associated with ADHD. Kids with ADHD are often restless, struggle to stay focused, and act impulsively, which can lead to poor school performance, per the National Institute of Mental Health. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permitted marketing of a game-based digital device to improve attention function in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). By playing games that require you to juggle tasks, you may be able to stave off cognitive decline and related diseases like dementia. The researchers note that our ability to multitask declines once we leave our twenties, similarly to the decline in other cognitive skills, such as reasoning and working memory. Small is the former director of the UCLA Longevity Center and has led studies on memory fitness programs.įor example, previous research found that older adults who played a multitasking video game three hours a week for four weeks saw significant improvements in multitasking ability, working memory, and attention, compared with those who did not. “There’s been a lot of research in this area and there’s definitely a link between mental stimulation and lowering your risk for cognitive decline with age,” says Gary Small, MD, chair of psychiatry at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, and author of The Memory Bible. Play games, boost brainpower? It may sound too good to be true, but playing games like those you’d find on your phone could help you stay sharp for years to come.
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