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Aging News & Information
Brain Exercise for Senior Citizens Does Seem to
Work, Says Study
Teaches brain to filter sounds, heighten visual focus
 June
7, 2007 - Can a fitness program for your brain improve thinking and
concentration the way lifting weights can increase muscle strength? From
crossword puzzles to computer games, there are a growing number of
options promoting brain exercise as a method to keep your mind young.
Initial results of a study, funded by the National Institute on Aging,
indicates these exercises do teach the aging brain to filter out
distracting sounds and increase visual focus.
As we age, we experience changes in how we perceive
the information that our eyes and ears gather from the environment.
Specifically, older adults combine information from the different senses
more readily than do younger adults. This can lead to difficulties in
blocking out distracting sights and sounds while still maintaining focus
on important information.
The Brain Fitness in Older Adults (B-fit) study is
a project funded by the NIA that is designed to
determine if a brain exercise program can improve healthy senior
citizens (ages 65-75) ability to filter out unwanted sights and sounds.
Research suggests that some training programs can
actually improve memory and cognition, however it is unclear what is
happening in the brain to elicit these increases in brain power.
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize
blood flow and brain activity, the B-fit study will determine how
training alters brain function when someone is asked to focus on what
they see and ignore what they hear.
Initial results suggest that after completing the
training program, there is increased activity in areas of the brain that
process relevant visual information and decreased activity in areas of
the brain that respond to distracting sounds.
This is one of the studies being presented at the
13th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM).
Established in 1997, OHBM is open to professionals (including students)
from all disciplines engaged in or supporting functional and structural
mapping of the human brain.
>>
Organization for Human Brain Mapping
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