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Only certain types of brain-training exercises reduce dementia risk, large trial reveals

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A large, 20-year trial showed that speedy cognitive exercises could reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia. The question is, could these tasks be adapted into video games?

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Specific cognitive training has 'astonishing' effect on dementia risk

A type of cognitive training that tests people's quick recall seems to reduce the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease

Cognitive training could arm the brain against the effects of dementiaGary Burchell/Getty Images

Cognitive training could arm the brain against the effects of dementia

Cognitive “speed training” can reduce the risk of a dementia diagnosis by 25 per cent – that’s according to results from the world’s first randomised controlled trial of any intervention against the condition.

“There was a lot of scepticism about whether or not brain training interventions were beneficial, and to me, [our study] answers the question that they are,” says Marilyn Albert at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.

Brain train game may help protect against dementia for up to 20 years

A large, long-term study found that playing a brain training video game may help protect the brain against dementia for decades. Experts say the findings are the strongest evidence yet that cognitive training can create lasting changes in the brain.

“It’s very surprising,” said Marilyn Albert, director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “It’s not at all what I would have expected.”

The research, published Monday in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, was a long-term follow-up of the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) trial.

Specifically, participants who did up to 23 hours of a specific type of cognitive training called speed training over a three year period were found to have a dramatic 25% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia over a 20-year follow-up period.

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