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Senior Citizen Opinions & Analysis
Claims that ‘Brain Exercise’ Does Not Slow Cognitive
Decline Challenged by Major Studies
Story grabbed headlines like, ‘$80 million per year
brain exercise industry a crock?; as new studies show brain training
helps
By Tucker Sutherland,
editor & publisher
 Feb. 20, 2009 – If you want to grab the headlines,
come up with something negative, counter to current thinking and
challenging to something important. A study in Alzheimer’s & Dementia
did just that by claiming there is no evidence supporting the benefits
of “brain exercise” in slowing cognitive decline. That’s how the media
saw the story. In the fine print, however, the author’s admit their
review was “limited by a small, heterogeneous, and methodologically
limited literature.”
The story grabbed headlines, though, like this one,
“$80 million per year 'brain exercise' industry a crock?”
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Opinions & Analysis for Seniors |
|
Reuters Health, a respected source of health news,
used this as their lead, “Healthy older people shouldn't bother spending
money on computer games and Web sites promising to ward off mental
decline…” This version was carried on Medline, the government’s chief
source of health news.
What is critical to know is that this small study
from Lifespan Affiliated Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, appears
to fly in the face of tons of research from some of the most prestigious
institutions in the world.
By simply engaging in cognitive exercise, you
can protect against future memory loss
For example, a study released today, which is to be
presented in April to the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual
Meeting in Seattle, found participating in certain mental activities,
like reading magazines or crafting in middle age or later in life, may
delay or prevent memory loss.
The research involved 197 people between the ages
of 70 and 89 with mild cognitive impairment, or diagnosed memory loss,
and 1,124 people that age with no memory problems. Both groups answered
questions about their daily activities within the past year and in
middle age, when they were between 50 to 65 years old.
The study found that during later years, reading
books, playing games, participating in computer activities and doing
craft activities such as pottery or quilting led to a 30 to 50 percent
decrease in the risk of developing memory loss compared to people who
did not do those activities.
People who watched television for less than seven
hours a day in later years were 50 percent less likely to develop memory
loss than people who watched for more than seven hours a day.
People who participated in social activities and
read magazines during middle age were about 40 percent less likely to
develop memory loss than those who did not do those activities.
"This study is exciting because it demonstrates
that aging does not need to be a passive process. By simply engaging in
cognitive exercise, you can protect against future memory loss," said
study author Yonas Geda, MD, MSc, a neuropsychiatrist at Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, MN, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of
Health, Robert H. and Clarice Smith and Abigail Van Buren Alzheimer's
Disease Research Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Another May Clinic study finds benefits in
computer-based effort to speed brain processing
This follows more research released earlier this
month saying Mayo Clinic researchers have found that healthy, older
adults who participated in a computer-based training program to improve
the speed and accuracy of brain processing showed twice the improvement
in certain aspects of memory, compared to a control group.
"What's unique in this study is that
brain-processing activities seemed to help aspects of memory that were
not directly exercised by the program — a new finding in memory
research," says Glenn Smith, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic neuropsychologist and
lead researcher on the study.
The research, a controlled, multisite, double-blind
study, will be published in the April issue of the Journal of the
American Geriatrics Society.
For an hour a day, five days a week for eight
weeks, study participants worked on computer-based activities in their
homes. The participants, from Minnesota and California, were age 65 or
older. No one had a diagnosis of cognitive impairment, such as early
Alzheimer's disease.
The control group, with 245 adults, watched
educational videos on art, history and literature topics. They completed
quizzes on the content.
The experimental therapy group, with 242 adults,
completed six auditory exercises designed to help the brain improve the
speed and accuracy of processing. For example, participants were asked
to distinguish between high- and low-pitched sounds. To start, the
sounds were slow and distinct. Gradually, the speed increased and
separation disappeared.
"The sounds go faster and faster, until it ends up
sounding almost like a click," says Dr. Smith. The difficulty increases
only as participants master each step with 85 percent accuracy. Other
exercises, such as matching or distinguishing between similar-sounding
words, for example, pop and pot, also were part of the skill building.
The commercially available program was developed by
Posit Science, a San Francisco company that financed the research. Mayo
Clinic researchers do not have financial ties to this business.
At the end of eight weeks, researchers used a
standardized tool to measure participants' memory changes. Called the
Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, it
includes tasks such as repeating words or numbers after hearing them
once.
"We found that the improvement in these skills was
significantly greater in the experimental group — about double," says
Dr. Smith.
Participants in the experimental group
self-reported memory improvement, too, indicating the change was
noticeable in day-to-day tasks.
While the study results are statistically
significant, Dr. Smith says it is important to understand the extent of
the memory boost. Collectively, the experimental group's memory function
increased about 4 percent over the baseline measured at the study's
onset. The control group's overall memory gain was about 2 percent.
But, Dr. Smith says, because participants were in
generally good health, the results don't offer insights on preventing
Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia.
Results indicate that aging adults may be able to
make better-informed decisions about ways to improve memory.
"Brain processing speed slows as we age," says Dr.
Smith. "The study indicates that choosing a memory-enhancing approach
that focuses on improving brain processing speed and accuracy, rather
than memory retention, may be helpful."
Yet, there's no harm in trying other approaches, he
says, - even doing crosswords or playing piano, but there's little
evidence these methods sustain benefits in memory.
Study debunking brain training may have been too
narrowly drawn
Dr. Peter J. Snyder of Lifespan Affiliated
Hospitals, senior author of the literature review challenging the
benefits of brain exercise, did concede some types of "brain training"
are known to help people who already have memory problems function
better. But, he told Reuter’s Health that their benefits for those who
don't have measurable cognitive impairment isn't clear,
Snyder says the market for these products has
swelled from $2 million in 2005 to an estimated $225 million this year.
"These marketed products don't confer any
additional benefit over and above being socially and intellectually
active in one's normal daily life," he told Reuters.
Social and intellectual engagement in day-to-day
life, from reading to grandchildren to doing crossword puzzles, is
probably just as effective, or more so, than any formal brain exercise
program, he added.
Reuters’ report said he further, he pointed out
that these activities are free.
Snyder did put in a plug for another means of
maintaining cognitive ability that is supported by substantial research
– physical exercise.
Actually, the conclusion drawn by Snyder’s study is
much more narrowly focused than portrayed by many of the media reports.
The researchers stated, “We found no evidence that structured cognitive
intervention programs delay or slow progression to AD in healthy
elderly.”
They say there is no evidence that these programs
slow the progression to Alzheimer’s disease, which is much more
restrictive that slowing the progression of cognitive decline, which may
or may not be associated with AD.
They further narrowed their conclusion to base the
brain exercise results just on “healthy elderly.” Although there is, as
in the examples in this article, ample evidence that training can help
“healthy” older people, they may not be only the “elderly.”
Below is the actual conclusion of the Lifespan
review:
“Our review was limited by a small, heterogeneous,
and methodologically limited literature. Within this literature, we
found no evidence that structured cognitive intervention programs delay
or slow progression to AD in healthy elderly.
“Further work that accounts for the limitations of
past efforts and subsequent clear and unbiased reporting to the public
of the state and progress of research on this topic will help the
elderly make informed decisions about a range of potential preventive
lifestyle measures including cognitive intervention.”
The bottom line – before senior citizens begin
throwing out their computer games and crossword puzzles, they may want
to do their own search of the available research exploring the benefits
of brain exercise. They may decide there are better options than doing
nothing to keep an aging brain active and alert.
>>
Click here to the full story by Reuters Health
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