processing-speed

Ballroom dancing can reduce aging-related brain atrophy in the hippocampus (and, more than treadmill walking!)

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Social ball­room danc­ing can improve cog­ni­tive func­tions and reduce brain atro­phy in old­er adults who are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er forms of demen­tia. That’s the key find­ing of my team’s recent­ly pub­lished study in the Jour­nal of Aging and Phys­i­cal Activity.

In our study, we enrolled 25 adults over 65 years of age in either six months of twice-week­ly ball­room danc­ing class­es or six months of twice-week­ly tread­mill walk­ing class­es. None of them were engaged in for­mal danc­ing or oth­er exer­cise pro­grams. [Read more…] about Ball­room danc­ing can reduce aging-relat­ed brain atro­phy in the hip­pocam­pus (and, more than tread­mill walking!)

Study: Computerized cognitive training may help patients with mild cognitive impairment (less so once diagnosed with dementia)

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cognitive_performance

Brain Gain: Com­put­er­ized Train­ing May Boost Cog­ni­tion in MCI (Med­scape):

“Com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing (CCT) for patients with mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (MCI) appears to have a ben­e­fi­cial effect on glob­al cog­ni­tion, mem­o­ry, and atten­tion and improves psy­choso­cial func­tion­ing, includ­ing depres­sive symp­toms, [Read more…] about Study: Com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing may help patients with mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (less so once diag­nosed with dementia)

Busy schedules linked to better memory and cognition among middle-aged and older adults

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busyness

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Being Super Busy May* Be Good For Your Brain (Smith­son­ian Magazine):

“There has­n’t been much sci­en­tif­ic research on busy­ness itself, although it’s some­thing that we talk about so often,” explains Sara Fes­ti­ni, a cog­ni­tive neu­ro­sci­en­tist at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Dal­las Cen­ter for Vital Longevi­ty, a co-author of the new research pub­lished this week [Read more…] about Busy sched­ules linked to bet­ter mem­o­ry and cog­ni­tion among mid­dle-aged and old­er adults

New Nevada regulation requires professional fighters to undergo regular computerized cognitive testing

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brain_craniumNeva­da offi­cials to require brain health test­ing for fight­ers (Las Vegas Review-Journal):

“The Neva­da Ath­let­ic Com­mis­sion will require all licensed fight­ers in the Sil­ver State, includ­ing pro­fes­sion­al box­ers and mixed mar­tial ath­letes, to under­go reg­u­lar brain health test­ing, offi­cials announced Tues­day in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. [Read more…] about New Neva­da reg­u­la­tion requires pro­fes­sion­al fight­ers to under­go reg­u­lar com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive testing

Quick, interactive brain teaser to test your concentration and cognitive flexibility

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Here is a fun and inter­ac­tive ver­sion of the famous Stroop test, often used in neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal eval­u­a­tions to mea­sure response inhi­bi­tion and cog­ni­tive flex­i­bil­ity. Per­form­ing well on the test requires strong con­cen­tra­tion and self-reg­u­la­tion. [Read more…] about Quick, inter­ac­tive brain teas­er to test your con­cen­tra­tion and cog­ni­tive flexibility

Study: Hearing aids, by reducing cognitive load, can improve brain function in persons with hearing loss

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hearing_brain

UTEP pro­fes­sor shows that hear­ing aids improve mem­o­ry, speech (press release):

“A recent study by Jamie Des­jardins, Ph.D., an assis­tant pro­fes­sor in the speech-lan­guage pathol­o­gy pro­gram at The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at El Paso, found that hear­ing aids improve brain func­tion in per­sons with hear­ing loss. [Read more…] about Study: Hear­ing aids, by reduc­ing cog­ni­tive load, can improve brain func­tion in per­sons with hear­ing loss