A new study out of the University of Texas at Dallas has found that demanding learning can restore even an aging brain. Researchers compared changes in brain activity in older adults randomly placed into high-challenge, low-challenge or placebo groups. The high-challenge group engaged in learning more difficult skills such as quilting and digital photography, whereas the other groups did simpler tasks with no active learning component, such as listening to music and cooking. After meeting 15 hours per week for 14 weeks, all the participants were examined. Members of the high-challenge group demonstrated better memory performance after the intervention, and an increased ability to control brain activity more efficiently as well as showing performance improvements in the medial frontal, lateral temporal, and parietal cortex regions of the brain, which are associated with attention and word processing. So keep challenging your brain, it will only help keep it younger.
Not just any cognitive challenge can protect the aging brain
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