{"id":31842,"date":"2017-11-19T13:26:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T08:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=31842"},"modified":"2017-11-19T13:26:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T08:26:42","slug":"study-shows-video-games-could-cut-dementia-risk-in-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=31842","title":{"rendered":"Study shows video games could cut dementia risk in seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI Nov 19 (TNS):<\/strong> Could playing video games help keep the brain agile as we age?<\/p>\n

A new study suggests older adults who practice specific computer training exercises that test how fast they respond to visual stimuli could face a 29 percent lower chance of developing dementia, results deemed encouraging by experts even as more work is needed to confirm the link.<\/p>\n

The randomized clinical trial involving more than 2,800 people study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and used a specific brain-training exercise called “Double Decision,” a patented program by Posit Science that is available on BrainHQ.com.<\/p>\n

The exercises tested a person’s ability to look at an object in the centre of the screen, like a truck, and click on an object that popped up in the periphery, like a car.<\/p>\n

As the user improves, the exercises move faster and become more difficult.<\/p>\n

The idea is to exercise the brain’s ability to change \u2014 known as plasticity \u2014 and to test skills of perception, decision-making, thinking, and remembering.<\/p>\n

Study authors say the process is like learning to ride a bike, a skill that doesn’t take long to learn but which drives a long-lasting brain change.<\/p>\n

Randomized study<\/p>\n

Participants were an average age of 74 when they enrolled in the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly study.<\/p>\n

Dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies have been published using ACTIVE data, which has now completed 10 years of follow up.<\/p>\n

Participants in the trial were assigned at random to four groups: one did computer exercises, a second one followed a series of traditional memory exercises, another did reasoning exercises, and the fourth, a control group, did nothing at all.<\/p>\n

Those enrolled in the computer-game part of the study did at least 10 hours of training in the first five weeks of the program.<\/p>\n

Some went on to do more training over the next three years, leading to up to 18 hours of total computer work.<\/p>\n

“Speed of processing training resulted in decreased risk of dementia across the 10-year period of, on average, 29 percent as compared to the control,” said lead author Jerri Edwards, a researcher at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n

There was no significant difference in risk of dementia for the strategy-based memory or reasoning training groups.<\/p>\n

The findings are published a peer-reviewed journal of the Alzheimer’s Association known as Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions.<\/p>\n

Experts urge caution<\/p>\n

Some outside experts urged a dose of scepticism in interpreting the current study as a magic bullet against dementia since many previous studies have found little to no benefit in popular online brain-training courses.<\/p>\n

“The results reported here, of apparent reduction in risk of dementia after 10 years following only a few hours of cognitive training, are therefore rather surprising and should be treated with caution,” said Rob Howard, professor of old age psychiatry at University College London.<\/p>\n

“I find it implausible that such a brief intervention could have this effect.”<\/p>\n

According to Doug Brown, director of research at Alzheimer’s Society, the study is “positive” in that it spanned a decade and compared several kinds of brain training.<\/p>\n

But it made its conclusions about dementia in patients based on self-reports or from subjects’ families, not clinical diagnoses of the condition.<\/p>\n

“This study hints that a particular type of brain training may help people to ward off dementia, but due to limitations of the research, we can’t confidently conclude this,” he said.<\/p>\n

Experts say more studies should be conducted to see if the findings can be replicated, and better explained.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI Nov 19 (TNS): Could playing video games help keep the brain agile as we age? A new study suggests older adults who practice specific computer training exercises that test how fast they respond to visual stimuli could face a 29 percent lower chance of developing dementia, results deemed encouraging by experts even as more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,776],"tags":[789,733],"class_list":["post-31842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31844,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31842\/revisions\/31844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}