Cognitive training could give seniors a big advantage.
In a study, older adults who participated in as few as 10 mental training sessions showed a significant increase in cognitive skills such as "reasoning ability and speed-of-processing," a Wiley news release reported. These results lasted for up to a decade.
Individuals who received extra "booster" sessions over the following over the following three years showed experienced even greater results.
"Showing that training gains are maintained for up to 10 years is a stunning result because it suggests that a fairly modest intervention in practicing mental skills can have relatively long-term effects beyond what we might reasonably expect," lead author Dr. George Rebok of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD., said in the news release.
The researchers conducted the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) in order to make their findings. The team reported their 10-year follow up of a study that looked at 2832 older individuals.
The average study subject age was 73.6 years at the beginning of the study. At the start of the trial the participants were divided into two treatment groups and a control group. One group (the "memory training" group) was" taught strategies for remembering word lists and sequences of items, text material, and the main ideas and details of stories," the news release reported. The other group (the reasoning group) "received instruction on how to solve problems that follow patterns, which is useful for tasks such as reading bus schedules or completing order forms."
Speed-of-processing training was conducted digitally; it asked participants to quickly identify visual information.
Members of both intervention groups reported higher function in everyday activities 10 years later. About 60 percent of the participants that received training remained at their starting level of cognitive function in daily tasks or had improved; compared with only 50 percent of the control group. Memory had also improved five years later, but the results between the control and intervention groups were much closer 10 years down the road.
"Our findings provide support for the development of other interventions for senior adults, particularly those that target cognitive abilities showing the most rapid decline with age and that can affect their everyday functioning and independence. Such interventions have potential to delay the onset of difficulties in daily functioning," Doctor George Rebok of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD., said.
