Word: valenzuelas
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...Scientists have conducted several hundred studies of the theory that brain reserve - the effect of formal education and mentally challenging work and leisure pursuits - may, through some mechanism not fully understood, protect people against dementia. Aware that the studies had tossed up contradictory results, University of N.S.W. neuroscientist Michael Valenzuela and colleague Perminder Sachdev last year conducted the first systematic review of research on brain reserve. Having integrated data from 22 studies of possible links between people's behavior and their subsequent brain health, the pair bring down their verdict in a paper about to be published in British journal...
...While most experts presume that aerobic exercise protects people from dementia by maintaining good blood flow to the brain, how mental exercise could help is still a puzzle. "There are a lot of theories," says Valenzuela, "but it's very difficult to pinpoint a single neurobiological characteristic that distinguishes people with high brain reserve from those with low brain reserve. I think that's been part of the problem: we've been looking for a magic bullet." Instead, Valenzuela postulates that mental activity alters the central nervous system in different ways at various levels. Research on mice, he says, shows...
...That finding still excites Valenzuela because it suggests that even those people who've had their minds in low gear for most of their lives can compensate with a late burst of effort. "It seems you can make up for whatever education or job history you may have," he says. "You're not locked into some dementia destiny...
...usual despite the presence of plaques, much as some people can maintain their focus when jackhammers start up outside their window. Autopsies of Alzheimer's sufferers confirm no neat correlation between the extent of plaques and tangling and the severity of symptoms. "After almost 100 years of research," says Valenzuela, "we still don't understand the fundamental link between the neurobiological changes and the expression of disease...
...Valenzuela would like to obtain funds for a trial in which half the 500 participants would engage in a program of intensive mental stimulation while the rest would carry on as normal. In the meantime, though, why wait? A nightly game of chess may do nothing to thwart dementia. But unlike an experimental drug, there's no risk of its doing any harm, either...