Take this with a grain of salt until there is more research....
The study — which followed more than 2,800 older adults for a decade — reveals how the brain-training intervention known as "speed-of-processing training" reduced participants' risk of dementiaby 29 percent.
The intervention was developed by Dr. Karlene Ball, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Dr. Dan Roenker, of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, and the study results were recently published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions.
Dementia is an umbrella term for a decline in cognitive functions — such as learning, memory, and reasoning — that impairs a person's ability to perform day-to-day tasks.
The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which accounts for around 60–80 percent of all cases.
It is estimated that dementia affects around 47 million people worldwide. By 2030, this number is projected to soar to 75 million.
A wealth of research has indicated that people may protect themselves against cognitive decline and dementia through brain training.
Scientists now know that the brain can adapt to change at any age, and that such adjustments can be either beneficial or harmful. This process is known as "neuroplasticity." Brain training aims to strengthen neural connections in a way that maintains or increases cognitive functioning.
To investigate this association further, Drs. Ball, Roenker, and colleagues launched The Advanced Cognitive Training in Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Study, which is the largest study of cognitive training to date.
The speed-of-processing training involves a computer game called "Double Decision," wherein the user is asked to spot an object, such as a car, in the center of their gaze, while also identifying an object in their peripheral vision, such as a road sign. As the game goes on, the user is given less time to spot each object, and distractors are added to the screen to make it more challenging.
The researchers found that the incidence of dementia was highest among the control group, at 10.8 percent.
Among participants who completed at least 15 sessions of the memory and reasoning training, dementia incidence was 9.7 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively.
But subjects who completed the speed-of-processing training were found to have a significantly lower incidence of dementia, at 5.9 percent.
The team calculated that the speed-of-processing training resulted in a 29 percent reduced risk of dementia over 10 years, and that each additional training session was associated with a 10 percent lower dementia risk.
"When we examined the dose-response," notes lead study author Jerri Edwards, Ph.D., of the University of South Florida in Tampa, "we found that those who trained more received more protective benefit."
The researchers explain that speed-of-processing training has demonstrated significant benefits for cognitive function in 18 clinical trials to date. Combined with their latest results, the researchers are confident that this form of brain training can reduce the risk of dementia.