Does your competent? doctor have enough functioning neurons to implement this? How else is your doctor going to recover your 5 lost years of brain cognition due to your stroke? Or is your doctor DOING NOTHING TO GET YOU RECOVERED?
Mine did nothing and knew nothing, which seems to be the standard response of all stroke doctors! COMPLETE FUCKING INCOMPETENCE!
Creativity Key to Slowing Brain Aging
Summary: Regular creative activity is linked to a younger-looking brain and slower brain aging, according to a large international brain-imaging analysis. People who regularly danced, made music, created visual art, or played strategy-based video games showed brain patterns associated with delayed aging.
The effect strengthened with years of experience, suggesting long-term creative engagement reshapes how the brain ages. Even short-term creative training produced measurable improvements in brain aging markers.
Key Facts:
- Younger Brain Age: Creative engagement was associated with a lower brain-age gap, a marker of delayed neural aging.
- Experience Matters: Long-term dancers, musicians, artists, and strategy gamers showed the strongest brain-health benefits.
- Plasticity Boost: Creative activity increased efficiency in brain networks critical for attention, coordination, and problem-solving.
Source: SWPS University
How to keep your brain in good shape? It is a good idea to regularly engage in creative activities, such as dancing, painting, or even playing certain computer games.
Such activities are associated with delayed brain ageing, and the greater the experience, the stronger this association, scientists, including researchers from SWPS University, observed in an international study.
“The conclusions from the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, could translate into specific actions in the field of public health. They suggest the need to incorporate creative activities (e.g., artistic, musical) into educational programs and healthcare systems as a promising tool for supporting brain health and societal well-being”, says Aneta Brzezicka, PhD, a professor at SWPS University, psychologist, and co-author of the study.
Creativity manifests not only in art
Creativity, or the ability to produce novel ideas or solutions using one’s imagination, most often refers to music and art, but it turns out that playing certain video games can also stimulate it. For example, strategy games like StarCraft II require users to be resourceful in developing unique tactics, adaptive problem-solving, and personalised playstyles.
It
has been known for some time that creativity and creative activities
have a positive impact on brain health. However, available scientific
research on this topic focuses on the effects of creative experiences on
cognitive processes and well-being, which is why, as part of an
international study, scientists decided to provide evidence of the
impact of creative activities on brain health.
Brain clocks and age gap
As part of the study, the researchers analysed neuroimaging data and surveys from over 1,400 participants from 13 countries (including Turkey, Italy, Cuba, Argentina, Canada, Germany, and Poland), among them individuals who could be described as experts in a given creative field.
Dancers (tango), musicians, visual artists, and action game players, including inexperienced players, were included. In one of the studies, participants’ brain activity was measured before and after several weeks of training in StarCraft II.
The researchers used advanced computational models, so-called brain clocks, which attempt to estimate a person’s “brain age” based on neuroimaging data. They are used in scientific research on a variety of brain diseases.
These models compare predicted brain age with chronological age, estimating the so-called brain-age gap (BAG), which reflects accelerated or delayed brain ageing.
Accelerated ageing (and therefore larger positive BAGs) is observed in psychiatric and neurological conditions, but also in people exposed to certain physical and social factors and leading unhealthy lifestyles.
Creativity supports brain health
The study authors found that people more engaged in creative activities, from dance and music to visual arts and playing computer games, tended to have a younger “brain age”, suggesting that such activities may help delay brain ageing and support healthy brain function. The link between creativity and brain health was independent of the type of creative activity.
All the analysed activities are associated with stimulating imagination and generating new solutions. Although they differ in form, they work in a similar way and may help maintain neural connections that are most vulnerable to weakening with age. The study shows that these activities support key functions, including motor control, coordination, and attention.
Creative experiences increased the plasticity of brain regions susceptible to ageing, as well as areas associated with creative processes.
“The study shows that creative experiences are associated with higher local and global brain network efficiency (especially in the frontoparietal hubs), which translates into more efficient information processing in those key regions,” explains psychologist Natalia Kowalczyk-Grębska, PhD, whose doctoral dissertation defended at SWPS University contributed to the new research.
Greater experience, younger brain
People who have spent years developing their skills in creative fields such as dance, music, art, or playing real-time strategy games had, on average, a more “youthful” brain-age profile compared to those with less experience in these activities.
This means that long-term practice related to creativity may be more effective in promoting neural plasticity and brain health than short-term experiences.
Although regular creative activity has been shown to help maintain a “younger” brain, in this study, even several weeks of targeted training (around 30 hours in total) were linked to measurable changes in brain-age indicators.
Effects of delayed brain ageing were observed across all creative domains studied, especially among more experienced individuals, with similar but smaller effects in participants undergoing short-term training.
These results indicate that it is a good idea to regularly tap into our creative potential, be it through dancing, painting, or immersing ourselves in the world of computer games. Such activities are associated with slower brain ageing, making them one of the simple, everyday ways to support brain health and – indirectly – our well-being, Brzezicka concludes.
The paper describing the study, “Creative experiences and brain clocks” was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
The
following researchers were involved in the study: Aneta Brzezicka, PhD,
a professor at SWPS University and psychologist from the Institute of
Psychology at SWPS University; Natalia Kowalczyk-Grębska, PhD, a
psychologist who defended her doctorate at SWPS University; and Natalia
Jakubowska, PhD, a psychologist from the Faculty of Psychology at SWPS
University in Warsaw.
Key Questions Answered:
A: Yes — higher creative engagement was linked to measurably younger-looking brain networks.
A: Yes — strategy-based games showed similar brain-protective effects as music, dance, and visual art.
A: Brain-age changes were detected after just several weeks of targeted creative training.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- Journal paper reviewed in full.
- Additional context added by our staff.
About this creativity and brain aging research news
Author: Marta Danowska-Kisiel
Source: SWPS
Contact: Marta Danowska-Kisiel – SWPS
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
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