Can a daily crossword puzzle slow cognitive decline?
A new study suggests it can. But some researchers remain sceptical, writes
For years, scientists have been trying to figure out whether ‘‘brain workouts’’ such as puzzles and online cognitive games could strengthen our minds and slow the process of ageing.
Now, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that regularly attempting a crossword may help slow decline in some people with mild cognitive impairment, an early stage of faltering memory that can sometimes progress to dementia.
While the study didn’t investigate whether crosswords benefit younger adults who are not dealing with cognitive decline, it suggests that keeping your mind active as you age may benefit your brain. And the research offers hope to those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment that they may be able to stave off further declines in the memory, language problems and decision-making that are the hallmark of the condition.
The American Academy of Neurology estimates that mild cognitive impairment affects about 8% of people aged 65 to 69; 10% aged 70 to 74; 15% aged 75 to 79; 25% from 80 to 84; and about 37% aged 85 and older.
The research, funded by the National Institute on Ageing, recruited 107 adults aged 55 to 95 with mild cognitive impairment. For 12 weeks, they were all asked to play one of two types of games, four times a week – spending either 30 minutes on Lumosity, a popular cognitive training platform, or 30 minutes attempting a digital crossword.
After 12 weeks, the participants were re-evaluated and given ‘‘booster’’ doses of game play six more times during the 78-week experiment. By the end of the study, participants were given standard assessments used to measure cognitive decline, and friends and family reported on their day-to-day functioning. MRI scans were also used to measure brain volume changes.
Researchers found that, in key measurements – cognitive decline scores, functional skills and brain volume changes – the regular crossword players fared better than the game players.
The finding surprised the researchers, who had expected that challenging web-based brain games, specifically designed to boost cognitive function, would offer the most benefit.
‘‘Our study shows fairly conclusively that, in people with mild cognitive impairment, crossword puzzles beat the computerised games on multiple metrics,’’ said Murali Doraiswamy, a professor at Duke University in North Carolina and a co-author of the study.
‘‘So, if you have mild cognitive impairment, which is different from normal ageing, then the recommendation would be to keep your brain active with crossword puzzles.’’
People with higher degrees of cognitive impairment appeared to benefit most from doing the crossword, which was designed to be moderately difficult.
The study has limitations. Some participants may have been more familiar with crosswords and hence responded better to them than to the computer games.
More years of follow-up would
be needed to determine whether interventions such as crossword puzzles could ‘‘truly prevent dementia’’, Doraiswamy said.
‘‘We’ve known for almost 30, 40 years that keeping yourself mentally active is really important. But we’ve not really translated that into an intervention that is a medical-grade intervention.’’
D.P. Devanand, a professor at Columbia University in New York and the study’s lead researcher, said the finding needed to be replicated in a larger study with
more participants and a control group that wasn’t playing any game.
‘‘We can’t say beyond a certain point why people do better on crosswords, but it does suggest that doing crosswords helps you,’’ Devanand said.
D
oraiswamy said he hoped future studies could build off the findings to investigate the optimal level of difficulty and time spent solving puzzles for people with mild cognitive impairment.
Some researchers remain sceptical. Zach Hambrick, a professor of cognition and neuroscience at Michigan State University, said the study did not investigate why the crossword might offer more benefit than a computer game.
In 1999, Hambrick co-authored a study that found no evidence to suggest that people who solve crossword puzzles more than twice a week had less cognitive decline.
He said completing a crossword puzzle, which requires the ability to remember words and esoteric knowledge gathered through experience, tested a person’s ‘‘crystallised cognitive abilities’’.
People with mild cognitive impairment had the most trouble with ‘‘fluid cognitive abilities’’ such as remembering a list of words or solving a logic problem.
Crosswords did not challenge the type of abilities associated with mild cognitive impairment, he said.
Lumos Labs, the company behind the computer games in the experiment, provided access to both the crossword puzzles and its suite of games but was not involved in the design or publication of the study. Doraiswamy is a consultant to Lumos Labs.
Laurie Ryan, the chief of clinical interventions at the National Institute on Ageing, said the agency funded the research because it was important to find treatments that reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
Most researchers agree that keeping your body and your mind active as you age probably benefits your brain.
Ronald C. Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre, said that, in addition to regular exercise, he recommended that patients spend time on challenging intellectual tasks such as watching a documentary or attending a lecture.
Look for activities that ‘‘bring you out of your comfort zone’’, said Sylvie Belleville, a professor of neuropsychology at the University of Montreal. Try different ‘‘stimulating’’ tasks or raise the difficulty of a certain task over time.
‘‘If you’re very good at crossword puzzles and you keep doing only that, you’re still in your zone of comfort and you don’t adopt new strategies, new brain networks.’’