On the postChristmas crack-up
The best approach for dealing with the ageing brain is to look after your body
into real life? Dellis insists so: for him, it’s all about developing a set of practices that you can rely on when needing to remember something important. He likens the memory palace technique to saving a file on your computer and placing it in a folder so you can find it again later. To remember names, he suggests using a mental image, this time incorporating a distinguishing feature – “the more ridiculous, the easier [it is] to remember”.
Brain-training apps and online programmes are big business – Peak has been downloaded 15 million times worldwide since its launch in 2014 – because, like crosswords and sudoku, they are challenging, addictive and fun, but with more room for innovation. I quickly find myself hooked: unlike a crossword, the technological aspects of the game mean you can compare yourself with other users in your age group. But as my ranking improves, the sceptic in me wonders whether my mental agility and problem-solving skills are really getting better or whether I’ve just got the hang of the games.
Recent research has proved encouraging. A study of an online brain-training package conducted by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London and involving almost 7,000 people over 50 found that online games that challenged reasoning and memory skills could have significant benefits for older people. After six months, significant improvements were noted on daily living tests, such as managing budgets, navigating public transport and doing the shopping, as well as grammatical reasoning and memory. The results are a neat rejoinder to the notion that too much time spent with screens is destroying our attention spans.
Another study, carried out at the University of Sydney, pulled together the results from 17 clinical trials of computer-based brain training and concluded that people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) could improve memory, learning and thinking skills, as well as mood. MCI is defined as an intermediate stage between the expected cognitive decline of normal ageing and the more serious decline of dementia. Between 5 per cent and 20 per cent of people over the age of 65 have MCI, according to the Alzheimer’s Society, and those with MCI are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Other studies, however, while recognising that users of braintraining apps get better at the task in hand, have found no evidence of this transferring to recognised measures of cognition. According to Dr Clare Walton, research manager at the Alzheimer’s Society, the best approach for dealing with the ageing brain is to look after your body with exercise and good nutrition, keep your mind engaged, and to socialise with others. Activities that tick all three boxes at once – such as joining a dance class or a table tennis group – will work best for some. Brain-training apps, the puzzles in your newspaper, joining a book group or playing bridge all help to keep the brain active in older age, and people who are mentally active tend to have lower rates of dementia over a long period, according to research.
Having had a taster of Dellis’s memory-boosting technique, I’m busy testing his memory masterclass while doing my daily Peak workout. It seems to me that brain-training apps are like a gentle workout, rather than being destined to bring about big changes. The memory masterclass, on the other hand, supplies techniques that translate to real-life situations.
I still don’t know where I’ve put my glasses, but after counting and visualising all 24 items on my shopping list yesterday, I deliberately left it at home. When I arrived at the supermarket, there wasn’t a single item I had forgotten. Except, that is, my Bags for Life – but, then, no one remembers those, do they?