Getting some memory and function back in your brain after 50 is now a top-three health goal. Many senior association groups like AARP have been promoting online tests and training in memory and thinking skills, but do they work?
Consider that brain function and thinking, obviously crucial as you get older, is multifaceted. Some of these associations offer simple online assessments to get at your level in detecting the aging brain’s mental skills and measures. Compared with the clinical tests, these are better than nothing, yet you should know clinicians use assessments that function from several angles and depth. Those simple assessments try to measure such things as verbal & visual memory and symbol recognition and matching.
One test often not included in the simple applications is the Stroop Test, a combined measure of reaction time, inhibition or not reacting to specified information, and even attention. If you are going to get a complete brain function idea compared to age, then these more complete tests are essential. Many in the know about brain function after 50 believe the simple, online tests just don’t include enough areas and depth to really determine your brain function compared to age, and what is your best course of action to improve weak areas.
The computerized training games are likely good to a point for some simple and basic abilities. A significant consideration is many of these games focus on just one or two skills. And that may not translate into better thinking. For example, you can improve your visual memory, yet that will not directly translate into getting closer to Einstein. The reason is simple – complex reasoning involves assessing, remembering, and then formulating conclusions based upon the information. Maybe your issue is attention. Perhaps it is keeping the information in short term memory. Many simple computer games just don’t get to this level of detection and inclusion and thus applicability.
You might get better at the computer game or training, yet it does not translate to life and more complex thinking. Wasn’t that the whole point?
Over the last three years, more and more exercise equipment has some type of tie-in to a computer, phone, or pad. An informal term often used to describe their relationship to the user is “engagement.” Off in the cosmos of inadequate definitions, it can be referred to as “mindfulness.” That includes everything from watching yourself run or cycle a course, keeping pace with an aerobic or resistance training machine, or even performing a new exercise movement. Most of the research in this area is in dysfunction, like the loss of control of a limb due to neurological consideration or an injury, so a little difficult to extrapolate to a normal life situation. In a simple equation, the more you have to think about the exercise and the movement, the better the mindfulness experience and results.
I would contend that exercise equipment companies have not really thought of their equipment as having a specific impact in this area, so expect results to be just a bit additional to the actual physical benefits, which are primary. However, each time you perform resistance training, take one exercise to accomplish it a little differently. That could be a cable versus dumbbell, staggered stance, change of tempo, etc.
If the online computerized games are a bit like Swiss Cheese, how do you fill the holes? Remember, those online applications are working on a few basic abilities, like verbal memory. What is really missing is putting it all together in something like problem solving and application. You have heard it before, learn a new skill or subject. Workbooks in things like math fit the requirement. Playing a musical instrument can stimulate those executive functions in the brain. And some of the new keyboards make it relatively easy to learn the piano without Mrs. Grinch keeping time on your shoulder with a ruler.
Another factor to consider is that Covid and the increased stay at home mean you have likely already over doubled your daily time in front of a screen, phone, or otherwise. Consider that too much computer time actually takes multi-media users and results in the ability to switch tasks being diminished. The total opposite of what you might think, which probably means you should get away from the computer and screen every so often. And because most people would add brain games to the mix, rather than subtract time in front of the screen, then add the brain game, maybe another factor to consider in modifying the approach.
How much of these complex activities should you do? That is where the research really has no firm direction. When you were working every day in your 30s, you were doing this pretty much each day. Based on what the person needs to work on from the assessment, two days per week of 30 minutes of these complicated tasks seems to be a good starting point. It is doable and not so overwhelming you will give up if you haven’t learned anything lately. It is not about what you learn or how fast. It is about putting the process into gear.
And, the result is a younger brain.
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