Reading Everyday Keeps Dementia at Bay

Neurobiological researchers have reported beneficial effects of lifelong learning on the brain, including the prevention of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Neuroscientists at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota investigated the association of lifetime intellectual enrichment rate of cognitive decline in an older population. In 2014, they reported the results of their study which involved almost 2000 individuals without dementia. The volunteers had an average age of 79 years and submitted to questioning to determine their baseline cognitive function and level of intellectual enrichment activities. The participants were followed over the next several years. The scientists reported that those with high lifetime intellectual enrichment (and good genes) might delay the onset of cognitive impairment by approximately 8.7 years when compared with low lifetime intellectual enrichment individuals.

Researchers from several institutions in Boston, Massachusetts, published a study in 2016 which confirmed the findings of the Mayo study. The scientists performed a meta-analysis, which is a comprehensive analysis of multiple previously published studies. They reviewed 12 studies involving 13,939 participants and 1,663 dementia cases, of which 565 were specifically evaluated as AD. Their analysis provided support for the hypothesis that late-life cognitive activity offers some reduction in AD and all-cause dementia risk.

What is happening in the brains of late life learners? Researchers from Johns Hopkins, in Maryland, sought to answer this question in a 2009 study of women with an average age of 68 years. The scientists recruited eight women to join a six month long social service program that would engage them in intellectual and physical activities (assist teachers to promote young children's literacy and academic achievement) and compared them with nine women who were on a waiting list to join the same program. All participants underwent a special MRI that identifies both brain structure and activity (functional MRI or fMRI) and performed clinical tests. The teacher’s assistants exhibited improved decision making and increases in brain activity in the left prefrontal cortex (a part of the brain associated with executive functions such as focusing attention and decision making) and the front of the cingulate cortex (part of the brain that serves as a bridge between the limbic system and neocortex, with roles in emotion, reward and decision making) relative to matched controls.

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