Why you’re never too old (or too young) to play games
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I’ve always been a big advocate of people staying mentally active, and challenging our brain – especially as we age.
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- Why you’re never too old (or too young) to play games
I’ve always been a big advocate of people staying mentally active, and challenging our brain – especially as we age.
I love reading, and I love all sorts of different brain teasers, puzzles and trivia. If you ever got your hands on my iPad you’d find that it’s filled with an assortment of books, magazines, and all sorts of puzzles and games of the mind-bending variety.
I was really excited when my Dad got into the Sudoku craze that swept Australia a few years ago – I bought him Sudoku books for birthdays, Christmas, Father’s Day – you name it. I thought it would be good for him to use his amazing brain for something other than work, and I’d read a few studies that suggested doing puzzles may help support cognitive function as we age – so I thought that had to be a good thing for him too.
But it turns out that you’re never too old, or too young to play these sorts of brain games.
A recent study has found that higher levels of cognitive activity throughout life – including in childhood, middle age, and old age have been associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline. This suggests that cognitive experiences across the life span may influence cognitive reserve in old age.
Not only did this study find that there was a slower rate of cognitive decline as the subjects aged – but when neuroimaging studies were done they suggested that cognitive activity can actually lead to physical changes in brain structure and function.
They found that activities that challenged a particular cognitive function were associated with differences in the grey and white brain matter in the regions that supported that task.
The activities that looked at ranged from occupations such as professional musicians and cab drivers in London, to leisure activities like learning colour names, performing cognitive exercises and playing board games.
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