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posted by Fnord666 on Friday May 17 2019, @03:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the sharp-as-a-tack dept.

University of Exeter:

The more regularly adults aged 50 and over played puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku, the better their brain function, according to research in more than 19,000 participants, led by the University of Exeter and King's College London.

The findings emerge from two linked papers published today (May 16th) in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. The researchers have previously presented their findings on word puzzles at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in 2018. The new research builds on these findings and also reports the same effect in people who regularly complete number puzzles.

[...] researchers calculate that people who engage in word puzzles have brain function equivalent to ten years younger than their age, on tests assessing grammatical reasoning and eight years younger than their age on tests measuring short term memory.

Dr Anne Corbett, of the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the research, said: "We've found that the more regularly people engage with puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku, the sharper their performance is across a range of tasks assessing memory, attention and reasoning. The improvements are particularly clear in the speed and accuracy of their performance. In some areas the improvement was quite dramatic -- on measures of problem-solving, people who regularly do these puzzles performed equivalent to an average of eight years younger compared to those who don't. We can't say that playing these puzzles necessarily reduces the risk of dementia in later life but this research supports previous findings that indicate regular use of word and number puzzles helps keep our brains working better for longer."

Engineers and scientists solve puzzles every day for a living. How does their brain function compare in old age?


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday May 17 2019, @07:03AM (1 child)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Friday May 17 2019, @07:03AM (#844631) Journal

    But, first you'd have to teach them howw to do the puzzles, then, somehow, make them do the puzzles "regularly"
    Would that work?

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @11:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @11:43AM (#844666)

    All it takes is a GF who is a dedicated puzzler. When we connected (~20 years ago, I was in my 40s) I'd tried a few crosswords but didn't have the bug. She got me started doing the easy, daily crosswords while she spent several days working through harder ones like the NY/LA Times weekend puzzles.

    Now it's part of my morning ritual, I see how fast I can do the easy ones (two in our morning newspaper), I'm usually at about 1/2 the time printed with the puzzle. All this practice on the easy ones, means that if I get to the Saturday NY Times puzzle before her, I have a 50:50 chance of completing it (or nearly all of it).

    She claimed from the start that it was good for maintaining mental acuity. In another 20 years we'll see if I start to have some dementia, like my parents did at a similar age...maybe it will push off the onset, maybe not. In the meantime, I like the daily challenge.