Speed training your brain may help prevent dementia

Many word games and math puzzles claim they keep your brain active. But what if there was a program that was scientifically proven to reduce your risk for dementia?

That’s exactly what a new study found: A particular speed training program for the brain reduced the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia by 25% over a 20-year period.

What researchers learned about speed training your brain

The study compared three brain training programs: speed training, memory training and reasoning training. There was also a control group that didn’t receive any form of cognitive training.

The computer-based speed training program involved trying to identify details about an image after seeing it briefly and processing complex information in short increments of time.

Participants who were assigned to cognitive speed training and had at least one extra follow-up training session 11 months and 35 months after the baseline session were 25% less likely to develop dementia. Participants who didn’t do the extra sessions and those who did reasoning or memory training didn’t have the same benefits.

“These results are surprising,” says Dr. Darren Gitelman, a behavioral neurologist and senior medical director of Advocate Memory Center at Advocate Health Care. “It may seem like a nice idea to be able to lower your risk of dementia just by playing a computer game. But this study outlines how this particular brain training program continues to make a difference in people’s lives even after a couple of decades.”

What makes the brain training types different?

Researchers theorized that speed training might have worked better because it worked on implicit learning to build long-lasting changes in the brain. One example of implicit learning is bike riding. Once you learn how to do it, you will remember it for the rest of your life.

Speed training differed from the other types of training in that the task difficulty increased over time. So, as performance improved, the task got harder.

The focus for reason and memory training was on performance improvement, which may not have activated the brain as strongly. These types of training also dealt with learning facts, and this explicit learning may have less long-lasting effects.

Comparing different types of brain training hasn’t been widely studied. Different training types are usually lumped together into a big study, so the results are like comparing apples and oranges.

More ways to reduce your risk for dementia

In addition to doing a speed training program for your brain, other ways to prevent dementia include:

• Following the MIND diet
• Staying socially active
• Exercising regularly
• Getting quality sleep

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