Sudoku anyone? Limber brain keeps seniors sharp

In an indication that the brain, like the body, needs exercise in old age, researchers said older people given training in mental functions stayed sharper for years afterward.

In an indication that the brain, like the body, needs exercise in old age, researchers said older people given training in mental functions stayed sharper for years afterward. The training involved formal sessions using things like mnemonics that teach people to remember by using acronyms and rhymes. But it is reasonable to infer that games like Sudoko that emphasize reasoning skills could have some of the same benefits, said Michael Mariske of the University of Florida, one of the authors.

One of the study’s surprises was that the impact of formal training in memory, reasoning and speed of thinking could be traced five years later in a group whose average age was 73 when the research began.

And since the training lasted only 10 to 18 hours in all, “imagine if you could do something like Sudoko where people practice these skills every day,” he said.

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Sherry Willis of Pennsylvania State University, lead author of the study, said: “Older adults really can continue to exercise mentally and to improve their cognitive abilities… It’s just like physical exercise… always challenge oneself. Don’t do the same activity over and over in a routine manner.” This and other research shows “the promise of non-drug treatments” to combat mental decline in aging, added Sally Shumaker of Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Independent living

“It’s possible to envision a future treatment approach that combines lifestyle and drug treatments to meet specific needs of each individual,” Shumaker added.

The study, published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, involved more than 2,800 people with an average age of 73 who were living independently in the US. It ran from 1998 through 2004.

Some of those in the study were given the formal training in memory, reasoning and speed of processing plus booster sessions in ensuing years and others got no training.

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“Immediately after training, individuals who were trained on memory, reasoning or speed, showed significantly higher performance than others,” Willis said. After five years, all trained participants reported less difficulty compared to the untrained group in performing activities of daily life,” the study said.

–Michael Conlon