Mental exercise can reverse a brain change linked to aging, study finds : NPR

Scientists reporting This is the first convincing evidence that cognitive training can boost levels of brain chemicals that typically decline with age.

A 10-week study of people 65 and older found that rigorous mental exercise for 30 minutes a day increased levels of the chemical messenger. acetylcholine by 2.3% in the area of ​​the brain responsible for attention and memory.

The increase is “small”, says Etienne de Villers-Sidanineurologist at McGill University in Montreal. “But this is important given that typically as you age you get a 2.5% decline per decade.”

So, at least in this area of ​​the brain, cognitive training turned back the clock by about 10 years.

The chemical changes observed after intense brain training are compelling, scientists say. Michael HasselmoDirector of the Center for Systems Neuroscience at Boston University, who was not involved in the study.

“It was so compelling that I thought, 'Maybe I should do this,'” he says.

The result is returned earlier research in animals showing that environments that stimulate the brain can increase levels of certain neurotransmitters. Human studies have shown that cognitive training can improve thinking and memory.

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The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, comes amid the rise of online brain training programs, including Lumosity, Elevate, Peak, CogniFit and BrainHQ.

But it's difficult to know whether these programs actually work, says de Villers-Sidani, director of the cognitive disorders clinic at Montreal's McGill Neurological Institute.

“They had a positive effect on some cognitive measures,” he says, “but then the question became how much does it change the brain and how does it change the brain?”

So de Villers-Sidani and a team of researchers decided to test whether mental exercise could increase levels of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that is closely linked to cognitive performance.

Acetylcholine levels usually begin to decline gradually around middle age. However, in people with Alzheimer's disease, its levels drop sharply.

The team studied 92 healthy people aged 65 years and older.

Half of the participants spent 30 minutes a day playing computer games such as solitaire and Candy Crush.

The rest spent the same amount of time each day doing cognitive exercises that are part of the scientifically proven BrainHQ program. The program asks users to remember the type and location of objects that appear and disappear at an increasing rate.

“It really targets attention and processing speed and pushes you to the limit,” says de Villers-Sidani.

The researchers used a special type of PET scan to detect changes in acetylcholine levels in the anterior cingulate cortex, an area of ​​the brain that is important for decision making and error detection.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure we would find anything,” says de Villers-Sidani.

But they did it. In people who played games such as solitaire, acetylcholine levels did not change. But people who received cognitive training saw significant increases.

Acetylcholine levels also increased in other areas of the brain, including the hippocampus, which plays a key role in memory.

Even modest changes matter, Hasselmo says, because acetylcholine does more than just relay messages to the brain. It also modulates neuronal behavior, affecting learning, memory and attention.

So when a person takes, say, a large dose of the motion sickness drug scopolamine, which blocks the effects of acetylcholine, things start to go wrong.

“If you block neuromodulator function in the brain, a person won’t even be able to think,” Hasselmo says. “You are becoming delusional.”

On the other hand, even a small increase in acetylcholine levels can have a “profound and noticeable effect” on memory and thinking in older people.

Hasselmo notes that first drugs for Alzheimer's disease reduction of symptoms by increasing acetylcholine levels. Now, he says, intense brain training can achieve similar results and prevent cognitive decline.