You’re composing sentences, learning new names, remembering what the person you just spoke to told you about their work or family, paying attention to the broader party scene and maybe even balancing a plate and drink while in high heels. “When you’re engaged in a social situation, you are stimulating multiple cognitive systems at the same time. What’s more, socializing itself has a cognitive component to it, says Park. When you play a stimulating game with other people, you get the added bonus of companionship, which provides protective health benefits for older adults, according to several studies. Similar to exercising in a workout class with a friend, the experience itself is enhanced by being with other people. “They can help your social life, particularly in group trainings that provide socialization that otherwise you won’t have,” says Dr. And they can enhance your life in other ways. A Workout for Your Mindīrain games stimulate different cognitive functions, such as executive function and processing speed, in older adults. Working at brain-challenging exercises won’t reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease or other kinds of dementia, nor will it reduce progression rates of these diseases, says Zaldy Tan, M.D., director of the Cedars-Sinai Memory and Aging Program and medical director of the Jona Goldrich Center for Alzheimer’s and Memory Disorders at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.īut they do provide significant benefits and can make your life better, he says.
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Adding novel behaviors that you never performed before helps build new neural circuits that will be built to handle that challenge.” Benefits of Brain Games for Aging Adults But if there’s too little, there may not be any gain. “If there’s too much, you will get stressed out and stress can be damaging to the cognitive system. “It’s important to have the optimal amount of challenge to maintain a healthy mind,” says Park. Park conducted a study where different groups of older adults (ages 60 to 90) learned digital photography and quilting-new activities that required complex planning and learning-and found that, over a period of 15 hours a week for three months, these adults enhanced their memories. “It’s important to engage in mentally challenging activities that allow you to constantly learn and get better,” says Denise Park, Ph.D., professor and director of research at the Center for Vital Longevity in the School of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas in Dallas. The key is that they must be difficult, but not too difficult. Online brain games are popular and offer a wide variety of imaginative exercises designed to challenge your memory, focus and problem-solving skills, but tactile games like bingo and jigsaw puzzles and hobbies like model building also stimulate important types of memory skills. Brain Exercises That WorkĪ brain exercise is any activity that engages your cognitive skills.
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