“A large, long-term study found that playing a brain training video game may help protect the brain against dementia for decades. Experts say the findings are the strongest evidence yet that cognitive training can create lasting changes in the brain.
“It’s very surprising,” said Marilyn Albert, director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “It’s not at all what I would have expected.”
The research, published Monday in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, was a long-term follow-up of the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) trial.
Specifically, participants who did up to 23 hours of a specific type of cognitive training called speed training over a three year period were found to have a dramatic 25% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia over a 20-year follow-up period.”