• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Study: For better memory and thinking skills at age 70 (and beyond), play cards and board games from age 11

December 17, 2019 by SharpBrains

___

Cards, board games could ward off cog­ni­tive decline (UPI):

“Play­ing cards and board games like chess, bin­go and Scrab­ble might be the men­tal work­out you need to keep your wits as you age, Scot­tish researchers suggest.

Peo­ple in their 70s who reg­u­lar­ly play board games score high­er on tests of mem­o­ry and think­ing skills than those who don’t. And 70-some­things who step up their game-play­ing are more like­ly to main­tain think­ing skills as they age, researchers say … Unlike read­ing, writ­ing, tak­ing class­es, vis­it­ing muse­ums, libraries or friends and rel­a­tives, games appear to more active­ly engage abil­i­ties like mem­o­ry, think­ing speed and rea­son­ing, Altschul said. “So, this fits with what we call the ‘use it or lose it’ the­o­ry, that exer­cis­ing your men­tal abil­i­ties more keeps them in bet­ter shape,” he said …

Peo­ple who played more games as they got old­er had less decline in men­tal skills in their 70s, par­tic­u­lar­ly in mem­o­ry func­tion and think­ing speed, researchers found.”

“These lat­est find­ings add to evi­dence that being more engaged in activ­i­ties dur­ing the life course might be asso­ci­at­ed with bet­ter think­ing skills in lat­er life. For those in their 70s or beyond, anoth­er mes­sage seems to be that play­ing non-dig­i­tal games may be a pos­i­tive behav­iour in terms of reduc­ing cog­ni­tive decline.”

Dr. Drew Altschul at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Edin­burgh’s School of Phi­los­o­phy, Psy­chol­o­gy and Lan­guage Sciences

The Study:

Play­ing Ana­log Games Is Asso­ci­at­ed With Reduced Declines in Cog­ni­tive Func­tion: A 68-Year Lon­gi­tu­di­nal Cohort Study (The Jour­nals of Geron­tol­ogy: Series B). From the abstract:

  • Objec­tives: Play­ing ana­log games may be asso­ci­at­ed with bet­ter cog­ni­tive func­tion but, to date, these stud­ies have not had exten­sive lon­gi­tu­di­nal fol­low-up. Our goal was to exam­ine the asso­ci­a­tion between play­ing games and change in cog­ni­tive func­tion from age 11 to age 70, and from age 70 to 79.
  • Method: Par­tic­i­pants were 1,091 non­clin­i­cal, inde­pen­dent, com­mu­ni­ty-dwelling indi­vid­u­als all born in 1936 and resid­ing in Scot­land. Gen­er­al cog­ni­tive func­tion was assessed at ages 11 and 70, and hier­ar­chi­cal domains were assessed at ages 70, 73, 76, and 79 using a com­pre­hen­sive cog­ni­tive bat­tery of 14 tests. Games play­ing behav­iors were assessed at ages 70 and 76. All mod­els con­trolled for ear­ly life cog­ni­tive func­tion, edu­ca­tion, social class, sex, activ­i­ty lev­els, and health issues. All analy­ses were preregistered.
  • Results: High­er fre­quen­cy of play­ing games was asso­ci­at­ed with high­er cog­ni­tive func­tion at age 70, con­trol­ling for age 11 cog­ni­tive func­tion, and the major­i­ty of this asso­ci­a­tion could not be explained by con­trol vari­ables. Play­ing more games was also asso­ci­at­ed with less gen­er­al cog­ni­tive decline from age 70 to age 79, and in par­tic­u­lar­ly, less decline in mem­o­ry abil­i­ty. Increased games play­ing between 70 and 76 was asso­ci­at­ed with less decline in cog­ni­tive speed.
  • Dis­cus­sion: Play­ing games were asso­ci­at­ed with less rel­a­tive cog­ni­tive decline from age 11 to age 70, and less cog­ni­tive decline from age 70 to 79. Con­trol­ling for age 11 cog­ni­tive func­tion and oth­er con­founders, these find­ings sug­gest that play­ing more games is linked to reduced life­time decline in cog­ni­tive function.

The Study in Context:

  • Can you grow your hip­pocam­pus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  • How learn­ing changes your brain
  • Solv­ing the Brain Fit­ness Puz­zle Is the Key to Self-Empow­ered Aging
  • Can brain train­ing work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  • What are cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties and how to boost them?
  • Fun Brain Teasers for Adults of Any Age

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Brain Teasers, Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: bingo, board games, Brain Teasers, chess, cognition, cognitive decline, cognitive-function, cognitive-reserve, games, Intellectual functioning, Longitudinal change, mental-workout, playing cards, playing games, Scrabble, Use-It-or-Lose-It

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 35,342 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.