A new study, involving 1,219 dementia-free older adults (65+), has found that the more omega-3 fatty acids the person consumed, the lower the level of beta-amyloid in the blood (a proxy for brain levels). Consuming a gram of omega-3 more than the average per day was associated with 20-30% lower beta-amyloid levels. A gram of omega-3 equates to around half a fillet of salmon per week.

Here’s a different aspect to cognitive reserve. I have earlier reported on the first tranche of results from this study.

More findings from the long-running Mayo Clinic Study of Aging reveal that using a computer plus taking moderate exercise reduces your risk of mild cognitive impairment significantly more than you would expect from simply adding together these two beneficial activities.

The study involved 4,134 people (average age 59) who worked at the French national gas and electric company, of whom most worked at the company for their entire career. Their lifetime exposure to chlorinated solvents, petroleum solvents, benzene and non-benzene aromatic solvents was estimated, and they were given the Digit Symbol Substitution Test to assess cognitive performance. Cognitive impairment was defined as scoring below the 25th percentile. Most of the participants (88%) were retired.

I’ve talked before about Dr Berman’s research into Attention Restoration Theory, which proposes that people concentrate better after nature walks or even just looking at nature scenes. In his latest study, the findings have been extended to those with clinical depression.

I’ve mentioned before that, for some few people, exercise doesn’t seem to have a benefit, and the benefits of exercise for fighting age-related cognitive decline may not apply to those carrying the Alzheimer’s gene.

A rat study has shown how a diet high in fructose (from corn syrup, not the natural levels that occur in fruit) impairs brain connections and hurts memory and learning — and how omega-3 fatty acids can reduce the damage.

We know that these unnaturally high levels of fructose can hurt the brain indirectly through their role in diabetes and obesity, but this new study demonstrates that it also damages the brain directly.

Data from the Women's Health Study, involving 6,183 older women (65+), has found that it isn’t the amount of fat but the type of fat that is associated with cognitive decline. The women were given three cognitive function tests at two-yearly intervals, and filled out very detailed food frequency surveys at the beginning of the study.

Interpreting brain activity is a very tricky business. Even the most basic difference can be interpreted in two ways — i.e., what does it mean if a region is more active in one group of people compared to another? A new study not only indicates a new therapeutic approach to amnestic mild cognitive impairment, but also demonstrates the folly of assuming that greater activity is good.

Damage to the retina (retinopathy) doesn’t produce noticeable symptoms in the early stages, but a new study indicates it may be a symptom of more widespread damage. In the ten-year study, involving 511 older women (average age 69), 7.6% (39) were found to have retinopathy.

We know that we remember more 12 hours after learning if we have slept during that 12 hours rather than been awake throughout, but is this because sleep is actively helping us remember, or because being awake makes it harder to remember (because of interference and over-writing from other experiences). A new study aimed to disentangle these effects.

In the study, 207 students were randomly assigned to study 40 related or unrelated word pairs at 9 a.m. or 9 p.m., returning for testing either 30 minutes, 12 hours or 24 hours later.

Now that we’ve pretty much established that sleep is crucial for consolidating memory, the next question is how much sleep we need.

A new study compared motor sequence learning in 16 people with mild obstructive sleep apnea to a matched control group (also attending the sleep clinic). There were no significant differences between the groups in total sleep time, sleep efficiency and sleep architecture (time spent in the various sleep stages), subjective measures of sleepiness, or performance on a psychomotor vigilance task (a task highly sensitive to sleep deprivation).

Older adults who sleep poorly react to stress with increased inflammation

A study involving 83 older adults (average age 61) has found that poor sleepers reacted to a stressful situation with a significantly greater inflammatory response than good sleepers. High levels of inflammation increase the risk of several disorders, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and have been implicated in Alzheimer’s.

Following on from research finding that people who regularly play action video games show visual attention related differences in brain activity compared to non-players, a new study has investigated whether such changes could be elicited in 25 volunteers who hadn’t played video games in at least four years. Sixteen of the participants played a first-person shooter game (Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault), while nine played a three-dimensional puzzle game (Ballance). They played the games for a total of 10 hours spread over one- to two-hour sessions.

Data from the very large and long-running Cognitive Function and Ageing Study, a U.K. study involving 13,004 older adults (65+), from which 329 brains are now available for analysis, has found that cognitive lifestyle score (CLS) had no effect on Alzheimer’s pathology. Characteristics typical of Alzheimer’s, such as plaques,

Previous research has been equivocal about whether cognitive training helps cognitively healthy older adults. One recent review concluded that cognitive training could help slow age-related decline in a range of cognitive tasks; another found no evidence that such training helps slow or prevent the development of Alzheimer’s in healthy older adults. Most of the studies reviewed looked at single-domain training only: memory, reasoning, processing speed, reading, solving arithmetic problems, or strategy training (1).

A number of studies, principally involving rodents, have established that physical exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells in the

A study involving 86 older women (aged 70-80) with probable MCI has compared the effectiveness of resistance and aerobic training in improving executive function.

A four-year study involving 716 elderly (average age 82) has revealed that those who were most physically active were significantly less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those least active. The study is unique in that, in addition to self-reports of physical and social activity, activity was objectively measured (for up to 10 days) through a device worn on the wrist. This device (an actigraph) enabled everyday activity, such as cooking, washing the dishes, playing cards and even moving a wheelchair with a person's arms, to be included in the analysis.

Over the years, I have reported on several studies that have found evidence that colorful berries — blueberries in particular (but I think that’s more of an artifact, due to the relative cheapness of these berries in North America) — benefit older brains. Indeed, I myself consume these every day (in my lunch smoothie) for this very reason (of course, the fact that they taste so good doesn’t hurt!).

A study involving 75 perimenopausal women aged 40 to 60 has found that those with memory complaints tended to show impairments in

Genetic analysis of 9,232 older adults (average age 67; range 56-84) has implicated four genes in how fast your

It’s estimated that 43%-70% of those with multiple sclerosis suffer from some level of cognitive impairment (yes, a very broad range! perhaps the finding of this study offers one clue why). Most commonly, this is seen in slower processing speed, impaired memory, impaired executive function, and poorer visuospatial processing. There are a number of factors that have been implicated in why some people suffer from cognitive impairment and others don’t, such as age of onset and male gender.

A three-year study involving 3,034 Singaporean children and adolescents (aged 8-17) has found that those who spent more time playing video games subsequently had more attention problems, even when earlier attention problems, sex, age, race, and socioeconomic status were statistically controlled. Those who were more impulsive or had more attention problems subsequently spent more time playing video games, even when initial video game playing was statistically controlled.

While smartphones and other digital assistants have been found to help people with mild memory impairment, their use by those with greater impairment has been less successful. However, a training program developed at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care has been using the power of implicit memory to help impaired individuals master new skills.

A number of studies have found evidence that older adults can benefit from cognitive training. However, neural plasticity is thought to decline with age, and because of this, it’s thought that the younger-old, and/or the higher-functioning, may benefit more than the older-old, or the lower-functioning. On the other hand, because their performance may already be as good as it can be, higher-functioning seniors may be less likely to benefit. You can find evidence for both of these views.

Previous research has pointed to a typical decline in our sense of control as we get older. Maintaining a sense of control, however, appears to be a key factor in successful aging. Unsurprisingly, in view of the evidence that self-belief and metacognitive understanding are important for cognitive performance, a stronger sense of control is associated with better cognitive performance. (By metacognitive understanding I mean the knowledge that cognitive performance is malleable, not fixed, and strategies and training are effective in improving cognition.)

Data from the Nurses' Health Study Cognitive Cohort, involving 19,409 older women (70-81), has found that higher levels of long-term exposure to air pollution were associated with faster rates of cognitive decline over a four-year period.

For each 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in pollutants, cognitive decline was comparable to two years of age-related decline.

Pollution exposure was estimated from geography. Cognition was tested by three telephone interviews, administered at roughly two-year intervals.

Women who received a once-standard type of chemotherapy regimen for breast cancer between 1976 and 1995 have been found to score worse on cognitive tests than women who never had cancer. Specifically, they tended to have lower scores on tests of immediate and delayed verbal memory, executive function, information processing speed, and psychomotor speed. The difference was comparable to some six years of age-related decline.

A study involving 130 HIV-positive people has found that memory impairment was associated with a significantly larger waistline.

Some 40% of participants (average age 46) had impaired cognition. This group had an average waist circumference of 39 inches, compared to 35 inches for those without such problems. Memory impairment was also linked to diabetes in those older than 55 (15% of those with memory problems had diabetes compared to only 3% of those without memory problems).

A study involving 1,575 older adults (aged 58-76) has found that those with DHA levels in the bottom 25% had smaller brain volume (equivalent to about 2 years of aging) and greater amounts of

The first study to look at the effects of the drug ecstasy on infant development has shown that infants exposed to ecstasy before they were born tend to be behind, especially in motor and coordination skills, at four months.

A new study explains how marijuana impairs

A review of 15 randomized controlled trials in which people with mild to moderate dementia were offered mental stimulation has concluded that such stimulation does indeed help slow down cognitive decline.

Data from 11,926 older twins (aged 65+) has found measurable cognitive impairment in 25% of them and subjective cognitive impairment in a further 39%, meaning that 64% of these older adults were experiencing some sort of cognitive impairment.

Another study adds to the evidence that changes in the brain that may lead eventually to Alzheimer’s begin many years before Alzheimer’s is diagnosed. The findings also add to the evidence that what we regard as “normal” age-related cognitive decline is really one end of a continuum of which the other end is dementia.

A small study involving 20 people has found that those who were exposed to 1,8-cineole, one of the main chemical components of rosemary essential oil, performed better on mental arithmetic tasks. Moreover, there was a dose-dependent relationship — higher blood concentrations of the chemical were associated with greater speed and accuracy.

A ten-year study following 12,412 middle-aged and older adults (50+) has found that those who died after stroke had more severe memory loss in the years before stroke compared to those who survived stroke and those who didn't have a stroke.

Participants were tested every two years, using a standard word-recall list to measure memory loss (or caregiver assessment for those whose memory loss was too severe). During the decade of the study, 1,027 participants (8.3%) survived a stroke, 499 (4%) died after stroke, and 10,886 (87.7%) remained stroke-free over the study period.