Sustained Engagement Key to Sharpness in Later Life

Being intellectually engaged has been associated with a higher level of cognitive performance in older adults.

Being intellectually engaged has been associated with a higher level of cognitive performance in older adults. Problem solving had the largest association of cognitive gains over a lifetime.

Economists and financial academic research have shown that the strength of a person’s cognitive powers over time determines the kind of financial decisions they make and how much wealth is accrued.

A 2018 study looked at 498 volunteers all born in 1936 who had taken part in the Scottish Mental Health Survey of 1947. The researchers were trying to determine whether maintaining intellect would offset age-related cognitive decline, testing the long-held common belief of “use it or lose it.”

Intellectual engagement was measured with a self-reported questionnaire, and the researchers tracked information-processing speed and verbal memory over the course of 15 years. The study’s authors note, “[the auditory verbal learning test and the digit symbol substitution test] are known to be sensitive to the effects of ageing and are measures of fluid ability.”

Defining “losing it” as intelligence being “functionally inferior to the past,” the researchers found that typical intellectual engagement had no effect on how fast intellect declined over time, though “problem solving is an independent contributor to late-life cognition.” They did observe age-related cognitive decline connected to both memory and how fast the study participants could perform the mental tasks.

Overall, the findings suggest that high-performing adults keep their brains active and those who continued maintaining their intellect were protected from relative decline. They also found that increasing brain activity through brain-training games such as crosswords and Sudoku might not influence the speed of mental decline. The researchers recommend further studies into how much intellectual commitment individuals make when playing these games, the intensity of that commitment and how these factors relate to the trajectory of cognitive decline.

Source: “Intellectual Engagement and Cognitive Ability in Later Life (The ‘Use It or Lose It’ Conjecture): Longitudinal, Prospective Study,” by Roger T. Staff of NHS Grampian, Michael J. Hogan of National University of Ireland and Daniel S. Williams and L.J. Whalley of University of Aberdeen; BMJ, December 2018.