Internet Searches Prevent Alzheimer's?

Some ways of exercising one’s brain are more fun than others. A 2008 study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry “looked at the brain activity of 24 neurologically normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76 as they searched the Internet. Half of the participants had experience surfing the Web, while the others did not.”

Researchers used fMRI scans to track subjects’ brain activity while reading books and doing Internet searches. All of them showed significant brain activity during the book reading, but “Internet searches revealed differences between the two groups. While all the participants showed the same activity as during the book-reading, the Web-savvy group also registered activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the brain, whereas those new to the net did not. (These areas of the brain control decision-making and complex reasoning.)”

Feeling smarter? You should.

More “Use It Or Lose It”

A 2003 study in the New England Journal Of Medicine found that “among leisure activities, reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing were associated with a reduced risk of dementia.” Dancing is not only a “leisure activity” but one of the most enjoyable kinds of exercise, and exercise has also been found to prevent Alzheimer’s.

If you’d like to see other posts about brain fitness:

Avoid Alzheimer’s With Brain Games

Playing Strategy Games Keeps Elders Sharp

Avoid Alzheimer’s With A Fit Brain

Playing Strategy Games Keeps Elders Sharp

In research by the University of Illinois, 40 adults over 60 years old were divided into two groups. Half were asked to play a computer game called Rise of Nations, a role-playing game in which players build their own empires. Players build cities, feed and employ their people, maintain a military, and expand their territory.

According to the SHARP BRAINS BLOG, “As a group, the 'gamers' became significantly better – and faster – at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group. Their working memory, as reflected in the tests, was also significantly improved and their reasoning ability was enhanced.”

In a second study, the researchers “found no comparable cognitive benefits for college students in their early 20s who played the same game for the same number of hours, regardless of whether they play videogames often or don't.”

Why Did Older Players Benefit More?

Professor A. F. Kramer, one of the researchers, explained it this way in the blog: “It seems clear that, as we age, our so-called crystallized abilities remain pretty stable, whereas the so-called fluid abilities decline. One particular set of fluid abilities are called executive functions, which deal with executive control, planning, dealing with ambiguity, prioritizing, multi-tasking. These skills are crucial to maintain independent living.

“In this study, . . . we showed that playing a strategy-based videogame (Rise of Nations Gold Edition) . . . transferred to untrained executive functions. We saw a significant improvement in task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and mental rotation. And some, but more limited, benefits in inhibition and reasoning.”

In short, complex strategy games are very, very good for older people’s brains.

Avoid Alzheimer's With Brain Games

I call it “the research that launched a thousand websites.”

The results in 2006 of the “ACTIVE" Study started a big Internet buzz and a multitude of websites. Plus giving us the idea that having fun with brain games may prevent Alzheimer’s.

The ACTIVE Study divided 2,802 normal subjects over age 65 into four groups. The memory group learned strategies for remembering word lists and sequences. The reasoning group learned strategies for finding the pattern in a letter or word series and identifying the next item in a series. The speed-of-processing group learned ways to identify an object on a computer screen at increasingly brief exposures. The fourth group received no memory training.

Can You Train A Brain?

Immediately after the initial training, 87 percent of the speed-training group, 74 percent of the reasoning group and 26 percent of the memory group showed improvement in the skills taught.

Do Brains Stay Trained?

And after five years, people in each memory-skills group performed better on tests than people in the control group. The reasoning-training and speed-training groups who received booster training had the greatest benefit.

The Internet responded to this news with an avalanche of websites featuring “brain games.” Some are free, others are quite expensive. If you’d like a good selection of free memory helps and games and a review of the ones that cost, try my TOUR THE SITES website. Go to the 1000 BEST SITES in the lefthand margin and click on Brain Games.

What Are The Symptoms Of Alzheimer's?

How much forgetfulness is a natural part of aging, and how much is a sign that a person is sinking into dementia or its most-feared form, Alzheimer’s disease? The Fisher Center For Alzheimer’s Research has laid it all out for us on its website. You can see from the description that a certain amount of forgetfulness is a normal part of aging. In fact, a good rule of thumb is: if you have to search for a word but recall it after a bit, you’re simply a normal older person. If you tend to lose words and they never come back, you may have a problem.

You Can Give Your Memory A Boost

If you’d like to test your memory or learn some good techniques to improve your memory, you can find excellent material in the 1000 BEST SITES FOR FAMILIES AND SENIORS. These "1000 Best" sites are on my own Tour The Sites website. Just scroll down the site's lefthand column, click on Brain Games and then on Boost Your Memory.