“We also do not know whether participating in these activities delay or prevent the onset of cognitive impairment such as dementia or dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.”
“What we do not know, however, is whether this is a direct causal relationship,” Langbaum told Healthline. Jessica Langbaum, an Alzheimer’s disease researcher from Arizona, and associate director for the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative, said there’s evidence that doing cognitively stimulating activities such as puzzles can help with our abilities such as thinking, attention, and reasoning. She encourages cognitive stimulation but said she wasn’t aware of any evidence from randomized controlled trials that confirms it can improve cognitive performance or longitudinally reduce the risk of cognitive decline or dementia.ĭr. It is important to challenge our brains with these types of tasks with age.” “On the other hand, some cognitive skills that tend to decline with age are mental quickness, divided attention, ignoring distraction, and shifting our attention. “Given that verbal abilities tend to improve with age, we tend to get better at word-related games in normal aging,” Edwards said. She also cited research that found that poorer cognitive function can cause a reduction in lifestyle including social activities.Īccording to a large randomized clinical trial, computerized cognitive training targeting speed of processing was better at protecting against decline over time among older adults compared to crossword puzzles, Edwards noted. She noted research that found cognitive engagement in old age can be a buffer from decline. “Also, people without cognitive decline engage in these activities, but when they experience cognitive decline they are likely to quit doing so because they become frustrating or challenging,” she said. “It is likely that people who have better cognition like these activities and tend to engage in them,” she told Healthline. Edwards, a professor from the University of South Florida in Tampa who studies brain games and cognition, said that because the study is correlational - not randomized - it doesn’t mean that playing games causes better cognition. They also want to assess the impact of puzzle intensity as well as factor in how long people engaged in puzzles.ĭr. The researchers want to follow up with the participants as time passes. “But this research supports previous findings that indicate regular use of word and number puzzles helps keep our brains working better for longer.” “We can’t say that playing these puzzles necessarily reduces the risk of dementia in later life,” Corbett said. Anne Corbett, lead author and dementia lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School. In some areas the improvement was quite dramatic,” said Dr. “The improvements are particularly clear in the speed and accuracy of their performance.
The data was self-reported, and participants completed cognitive testing online. The cross-sectional data analysis evaluated testing on about 19,000 people. On short-term memory tests, puzzle takers had brain function equivalent to eight years younger. People who do puzzles have brain function equivalent to 10 years younger than their age, according to the study tests. In short, the more people engaged in puzzles, the better they performed on tests.
Sudoku trial series#
Then they used a series of tests to gauge attention, memory, and reasoning. Researchers looked at data from about 19,100 participants in the PROTECT study to see how often they performed word and number puzzles.
The verdict is still out, however, on how they can help us in the long-term or if they can help prevent cognitive decline.Īccording to a recent study published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, the more people over 50 engage in games such as sudoku and crosswords, the better their brains function.
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