Numbers and Words: Saving Your Aging Brain

How many decades have to pass before your hospital buys Sudoku puzzles for every stroke survivor? Or will they wait forever because

SOMEONE ELSE WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM?

And tell them what to do? That would be such a fucking display of incompetence that the whole stroke hospital and the board of directors needs to be removed. 

Numbers and Words: Saving Your Aging Brain

New research suggests you need to “use it or lose it.” Can puzzles help?

Google Platinum Blonde is you want the hardest sudoku puzzle created. 

Posted May 25, 2019

Puzzles may do more than entertain us.

Source: Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay, used with permission.

It may seem like a no-brainer, but the effects of brain training—using tools like word and number games to enhance cognitive performance—are actually quite controversial. That’s because the broader and long-term benefits of brain training have yet to be determined. There are many questions: Do word and number games actually enhance your brain, or do you just get better at doing puzzles? Do such puzzles help keep your brain working better overall for a longer period of time? Researchers are setting out to find more definitive answers, one way or another.
Using data collected online from more than 19,000 study participants ages 50 to 93, researchers at University of Exeter Medical School in the U.K. found that those who regularly played number games like Sudoko had significantly higher cognition function than those who played fewer or none at all. The brain functioning skills tested included reasoning, attention/focus, information processing, executive function, working memory, and episodic memory.
The study, published in print in the May 2019 issue of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, piggybacks on research published last year by the same researchers on the cognitive benefits of doing word puzzles, such as crosswords. In both cases, the researchers found that the more often participants worked on the puzzles, the better they did on tests that assessed their attention, reasoning, and memory capabilities. In the case of number puzzles, the researchers found that those participants who reportedly did number puzzles more than once a day scored highest on all cognitive functions tested than any other group. Overall, speed and accuracy were most notably improved.
A 2016 article published in Nature reviewed various theories and studies of brain training and came up with conflicting results and mixed reviews. While many studies seem to show real benefits from training, skeptics say there may be nothing more to it than there is to practicing anything to get better at it. They question whether or not specific types of brain training used in these types of studies  actually improve cognition in other areas and under other circumstances. They also question whether or not the range of activities used to test cognition is broad enough to accurately measure the outcome and its significance.
Research like these recently published word and number puzzle studies heed the call from skeptics for larger and stronger studies on the effects of brain training. Many questions remain on the relationship between working memory and intelligence, for instance, and on the long-term and overall benefits of braining training. Researchers around the world are teaming up to engage in more rigorous studies wherein new ideas and methods for brain training will be explored and shared.
Meanwhile, most studies end with rationales for further research and the Exeter studies are no exception. While this latest study looked at how often participants played number puzzles, just as the previous study looked at the frequency of engaging in word puzzles, the researchers are planning future studies to help them determine if and how the specific type and difficulty of puzzles influences brain function in aging adults. 

References

Brooker H, Wesnes KA, Ballard C, et al. The relationship between the frequency of number-puzzle use and baseline cognitive function in a large online sample of adults aged 50 and over. Geriatric Psychiatry. First published online February 11, 2019.

Brooker H, Wesnes KA, Ballard C, et al. An online investigation of the relationship between the frequency of word puzzle use and cognitive function in a large online sample of older adults. Geriatric Psychiatry. First published online February 15, 2018.

Makin S. Brain training: Memory games. Nature. March 3, 2016. S10-S11

Regular crosswords and number puzzles linked to sharper brain in later life

Does your stroke hospital have enough common sense to purchase these for all stroke patients and bill them for it? Or are they so fucking stupid they don't know about this? Which stupidity do you prefer? Not knowing? Or not doing?  I was able to do the hardest Sudoko puzzles prestroke, although I never did get around to attempting the hardest one out there; Platinum blonde.  I haven't gone back to them yet. 

So gaining ten years might ameliorate the lost 5 cognitive years from your stroke

What is your doctors protocol to regain those 5 years? No protocol, call the president and ask when competent doctors will be employed. Then call the board of directors and ask when a competent president will be employed.

Regular crosswords and number puzzles linked to sharper brain in later life

Older adults who regularly take part in word and number puzzles have sharper brains, according to the largest online study to date.

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 asked participants in the PROTECT study, the largest online cohort in older adults, to report how frequently they engage in word and number puzzles and undertake a series of cognitive tests sensitive to measuring changes in brain function. They found that the more regularly participants engaged with the puzzles, the better they performed on tasks assessing attention, reasoning and memory.
From their results, 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.”
The study used participants in the PROTECT online platform, run by the University of Exeter and Kings College London. Currently, more than 22,000 healthy people aged between 50 and 96 are registered in the study, and the study is expanding into other countries including Hong Kong and the US. The online platform enables researchers to conduct and manage large-scale studies without the need for laboratory visits. PROTECT is a 25 year study with participants being followed up annually to explore how the brain ages and what might influence the risk of dementia later in life. PROTECT is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Bioresource, including through its NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN). In addition to taking part in vital research, participants in the PROTECT study have access to a brain training programme that has already been shown to benefit brain function, as well as having the opportunity to take part in exciting new research studies into brain health and dementia prevention.
Clive Ballard, Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter Medical School, said: “PROTECT is proving to be one of the most exciting research initiatives of this decade, allowing us to understand more about how the brain ages and to conduct cutting-edge new studies into how we can reduce the risk of dementia in people across the UK. If you’re aged 50 or over, you could sign up to take part in research that will help us all maintain healthy brains as we age.”
To sign up to PROTECT or to find out more here.
PROTECT receives funding from the Wellcome Trust, the JP Moulton Foundation, and Alzheimer’s Society. Partners include South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and Devon Partnership Trust.
The papers are entitled:

• 'The relationship between the frequency of number‐puzzle use and baseline cognitive function in a large online sample of adults aged 50 and over'
• 'An online investigation of the relationship between the frequency of word puzzle use and cognitive function in a large sample of older adults'