{"id":15627,"date":"2024-10-30T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15627"},"modified":"2024-10-30T09:26:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T09:26:46","slug":"can-puzzles-and-games-prevent-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15627","title":{"rendered":"Can Puzzles and Games Prevent Dementia?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Experts say the answer is a puzzle.<\/p>\n

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It makes sense in principle: You exercise your muscles to make them stronger and prevent frailty and decline; shouldn\u2019t your brain work the same way?<\/p>\n

That premise launched multiple brain training websites and apps, and most likely contributed to the sale of countless Sudoku, crossword and logic puzzle books over the past two decades. It also inspired numerous academic researchers to explore whether cognitive training really can make people smarter and even lower the risk for dementia.<\/p>\n

But, as often happens in science, a seemingly straightforward idea is more complicated than it appears. Because the answer to, \u201cis training your brain helpful?\u201d depends on what type of exercises you\u2019re doing and what benefits you\u2019re seeking.<\/p>\n

When psychologists conduct research on whether it\u2019s possible to improve cognition, they mostly use computer games developed to enhance a specific aspect of how we think. Some brain training games teach people strategies to improve a skill or recognize patterns. Others gradually increase speed and difficulty to challenge the brain, said Lesley Ross, a professor of psychology at Clemson University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Many studies have shown that playing these games can improve people\u2019s cognitive abilities \u2014 not just on the specific task they\u2019re working on, but related tasks, too. That \u201cisn\u2019t terribly surprising,\u201d said Adrian Owen, a professor of cognitive neuroscience and imaging at Western University in Ontario, Canada, just as someone who practiced memorizing phone numbers would probably get better at remembering dates.<\/p>\n

Evidence that playing one type of game will make you smarter overall or help you improve on a completely different<\/a> kind of task<\/a> is less compelling.<\/p>\n

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Experts say the answer is a puzzle.It makes sense in principle: You exercise your muscles to make them stronger and prevent frailty and decline; shouldn\u2019t your brain work the same way?That premise launched multiple brain training websites and apps, and most likely contributed to the sale of countless Sudoku, crossword and logic puzzle books over the past two decades. It also inspired numerous academic researchers to explore whether cognitive training really can make people smarter and even lower the risk for dementia.But, as often happens in science, a seemingly straightforward idea is more complicated than it appears. Because the answer to, \u201cis training your brain helpful?\u201d depends on what type of exercises you\u2019re doing and what benefits you\u2019re seeking.When psychologists conduct research on whether it\u2019s possible to improve cognition, they mostly use computer games developed to enhance a specific aspect of how we think. Some brain training games teach people strategies to improve a skill or recognize patterns. Others gradually increase speed and difficulty to challenge the brain, said Lesley Ross, a professor of psychology at Clemson University.Many studies have shown that playing these games can improve people\u2019s cognitive abilities \u2014 not just on the specific task they\u2019re working on, but related tasks, too. That \u201cisn\u2019t terribly surprising,\u201d said Adrian Owen, a professor of cognitive neuroscience and imaging at Western University in Ontario, Canada, just as someone who practiced memorizing phone numbers would probably get better at remembering dates.Evidence that playing one type of game will make you smarter overall or help you improve on a completely different kind of task is less compelling.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15629,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15627"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15630,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15627\/revisions\/15630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}