Word: ageing
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There is, of course, no cure for memory loss, and no preventive vaccine. Yet a rapidly growing body of evidence suggests that certain behaviors may reliably slow the effects of age-related cognitive decline. Chief among them: eating right, exercising and engaging in social activity and mentally challenging tasks...
...example, has pledged $8.5 million to study the impact of video games on everything from Alzheimer's disease to driving skills - there is little existing evidence that gaming, which is widely dismissed as an elaborate form of mind rot, really holds any potential to slow the effects of aging. "I think it is silly for someone to run out and buy a game with the hope that it is going to help them age better. There is no proof that it is going to be effective," says Columbia University neuropsychologist Yaakov Stern, who specializes in cognition in older adults...
...based brain-training site, entices visitors to "give the gift of brain fitness" and claims that its users saw "16%+ improvement" through exercises such as learning to associate a bird's song with its species and shooting basketballs through virtual hoops. Nintendo's best-selling Brain Age game promises to "give your brain the workout it needs" through exercises like solving math problems and playing rock, paper, scissors on the handheld...
...study, presented last year at the Cognitive Neuroscientist Society's annual meeting, psychologist and neuroscientist Helena Westerberg of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm compared the cognitive abilities of 45 young adults (average age 25) with those of 55 older adults (average age 65). She found that after five weeks of computerized training on tasks ranging from reproducing a series of light flashes to repeating digits in the opposite order that they were given, the older group was able to reach the same level of working memory, attention and reaction time that the younger group had at the outset. (Notably...
McLaughlin and Allaire say they intend to identify exactly what components of video game play may help preserve mental fitness into old age. "Is it because it is novel, the level of attention required or the collaboration with other players?" asks Allaire, 35. He says he hopes that by the time he is a senior citizen, playing video games will be as commonplace for those over 65 as it is for young people today. "I think World of Warcraft will always be cool and kids will think their grandparents are cool for playing it," he says. They might...