August 15, 2008
Old Brains & New Tricks
There have been a plethora of cognitive games that have come to the market in the last few years. Mostly, geared toward seniors, the games promote ways to "keep your brain active" and imply that one can ward off cognitive decline by keeping one's brain busy with games and challenges. Nintendo's Brain Age is an example of this and offers a variety of puzzles, memory speed challenges and other activities that are not so dissimilar from some used with toddlers.
According to a recent article in the Washington Post, the revenue for the brain fitness software market in 2007 reached $225 million, up from $100 million in 2005. Consumers spent $80 million of that, up from $5 million in 2005; the rest came from school systems, the military, corporations, sports teams, senior facilities and other health organizations.
In order to market these products, gamemakers rely on science that suggests a benefit to cognitive training. These games will claim to help 'improve and maintain your quality of life' or 'stay healthier longer' or one training system, which runs many thousands of dollars, claims to be "a powerful new weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's disease."
There has been some data that has triggered this cognitive training marketing surge such as a JAMA article describing a study called Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly where participants demonstrated improvement in the specific cognitive areas in which they were trained and apparently less functional decline in daily living activities.
But, as the article points out, experts say it's too soon to know if there are long-term gains from computer brain games.
One area that has become a serious area of interest and scientific study is the impact of diet, exercise and social activities on the aging process as well as cognitive fitness. The National Institute on Aging has funded projects to learn more about the effects of exercise, diet, social engagement and mental stimulation on long-term brain health. Imaging technology can show as never before what interventions actually work to create brain cell growth and new neural pathways.
So what seems like the best approach is a combination of keeping physically active, socially engaged and cognitively challenged. Two recent studies hightlight this approach. Burns and colleagues from the University of Kansas School of Medicine published a study in last month's Neurology that concluded that increased cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with reduced brain atrophy in Alzheimer disease. Kurz and colleagues from Munich studied cognitive rehabilitation in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and concluded that patients with MCI benefit from a multi-component cognitive rehabilitation program which included activity planning, self-assertiveness training, relaxation techniques, stress management, use of external memory aids, memory training, and motor exercise.
Cardiorespiratory fitness and brain atrophy in early Alzheimer disease
Neurology. 2008 Jul 15;71(3):210-6
Cognitive rehabilitation in patients with mild cognitive impairment
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Jul 17.