Brain Training
A decade long study published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society shockingly shows that brain exercises practiced 10 years ago are still showing results in older adults today.
The trial is called the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly study, or ACTIVE, and studied almost 3,000 older adults and their responses to brain training programs. The study focused on processing speed, memory, and reasoning ability over time and the effects of three different brain training programs on these functions.
In the beginning of the study participants with an average age of 74 completed 10 to 12 brain training sessions, each of which took approximately 60 to 75 minutes. After five years, participants who completed the courses did better in all three categories than those in the control group. After ten years, those who completed the classes did better in reasoning speed and processing speed tests, although they lost their edge over the control group in memory tests.
All participants, including those in the control group were tested immediately after training and at the one, two, three, five, and ten year marks. It is believed that all participants did receive some advantage over time simply from practicing the test so many times.
Over time, all participants did show mental decline from their post training test. Yet 73.6% of those who received training were still performing above their pre-trial baseline. 61.7% of those who did not receive training were still performing better than their pre-trial baseline, due to the advantage of having taken the test so many times.
Researchers were extremely excited that a dramatic and distinguishable difference was still present a full ten years after the brain training sessions. If more studies back up these dramatic results, it may soon be the norm to receive brain training as we age.
http://www.centurypa.com/blog/2014/01/brain-training/