Brain games key to maintaining mental clarity
Simple computer games can help older people improve their memory and attention, Sydney researchers have found.
Amy Corderoy in the Sydney Morning Herald quotes clinical psychologist, Maurice Finn, who works at the memory clinic at Royal North Shore Hospital’s department of aged care and rehabilitation.
He says that people who thought declining memory and brain function were inevitable as they aged gave up too easily, and that people with mild cognitive impairment, often a precursor to dementia, could improve their brain function with computer games.
After 30 sessions the elderly people with mild cognitive impairment got better at playing computer games designed to improve memory and concentration.
The skills they developed also seemed to help them perform better at other, similar tasks, said Mr Finn, who will present his findings at the Australian Association of Gerontology conference in Tasmania this week.
Using brain games available from http://www.lumosity.com, which was not associated with the study but did provide free access to the games, the participants improved their ability to pay attention to visual tasks.
A group of people who did not play the games experienced a decline in those skills.
People with mild cognitive impairment have memory loss and difficulty thinking, which are worse than would be expected in people ageing normally but fall far short of the problems seen in dementia patients.
