For two decades. That is how long this study watched people.
Nearly 3,000 seniors, aged 65 or older. The goal? See who ended up with dementia.
Most doctors have preached Sudoku. Puzzles. Crosswords. Standard advice to keep the rust off your neurons. But a new paper published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia suggests the old playbook might be wrong. At least partly.
There is one specific thing that showed real protective benefit. A speed-training video game. It is free. You can find it online right now.
The results were stark. The participants who played the game and returned for “booster” sessions later saw their dementia risk drop by 25%. Twenty-five percent. Not 1%. Not a marginal statistical whisper. A quarter less likely to get the diagnosis compared to those who did nothing.
Did the memory training group win? No.
The logic puzzle group? No.
Only the speed group survived better. And only the ones who kept at it.
What did they actually do?
The protocol wasn’t complex, just grueling for some.
Ten sessions. Twice a week. For five weeks. Each session lasted 60 to 75 minute. The task was simple. Look at the screen. Find the objects. Decide. Fast.
Then the hard part. The booster.
Half the group came back for more. Up to 23 hours of extra play spread over three years. Marilyn Albert, PhD, director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine co-authored the study. She explains the boosters were shorter. Reinforcement. Cementing what the brain learned during the initial sprint.
Without those extra hours. No benefit. The data was clear. If you skipped the boosters the effect vanished. Same for the people who tried to train their memory or their reasoning. They saw no shield against the disease.
“Increased processing speed may be protected for subcortical types.”
Why does speed matter?
Clifford Segil DO. A neurologist. He is not convinced yet. And neither should you be entirely.
Segil notes that some dementia subtypes involve slower responses. If your brain processes information faster. You might outrun the symptoms. It is a theory.
Albert thinks the benefit comes from general cognitive activity. Just using the brain hard. But Segil pushes back gently. Hard.
“There is no neurologist” in the world, he says. “Who is going to agree playing this game protects you from dementia.”
He is intrigued. He wants bigger data sets. More people. Reproducibility. The sample was solid, yes, but medicine doesn’t run on hunches. Or free online games.
He reminds us that we have been chasing the “neuroprotective” power of puzzles since crosswords were new. Maybe it isn’t the puzzle. Maybe it is just attention.
What else works?
If you aren’t signing up for 23 hours of gaming over three years. What then?
Keep busy. Segil suggests classes. New hobbies. Read. Listen to music.
Also. Move your body. Control your blood pressure. These things matter as much as any mental workout.
Albert agrees. Physical health supports cognitive health. They are tied together.
So, will you log on and find the hidden object?
Maybe. Maybe not. But sitting in silence won’t help either.
