To keep your mind clear, you need to study in old age

Learning new skills helps older people keep their wits sharp

RIA NewsNot all classes help elderly people to keep their wits sharp, but only those that force them to do something fundamentally new, changing their lifestyle - for example, taking a photography course, American scientists found out, whose article was published in the journal Psychological Science.

(You can get the text of the article "The Impact of Sustained Engagement on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: The Synapse Project" by writing to the author of the press release Learning New Skills Keeps an Aging Mind Sharp, published in the same journal - VM.)

"It turned out that it's not enough to just go and start doing something - it's important to do something that is unfamiliar and requires effort, stimulates both psychologically and socially. When you are in your comfort zone, you are certainly out of the "growth" zone," says the lead author of the article Denise Park from the University of Texas at Dallas, whose words are quoted in the message of the Association of Psychological Sciences.

Park and her colleagues conducted a study to find out whether any activity helps people develop cognitive abilities. To do this, they randomly selected 221 volunteers aged 60 to 90 years and divided them into three groups. The first of them was offered to take a three–month course, in which they were trained for 15 hours every week in a new business for them - digital photography or quilting (quilting): these classes "connected" working and long-term memory. Some participants could choose both subjects.

The second group of subjects was engaged in more usual activities: they listened to classical music or solved crosswords. Finally, the researchers suggested that communication with others can also affect brain performance, so the task of the remaining elderly participants was active social interaction – in particular, various excursions or entertainment.

It turned out that the subjects who studied something fundamentally new for themselves improved their memory and other mental abilities, unlike those who simply led an active lifestyle. The scientists plan to follow the study participants first for a year, and then for five years to see if the effects they identified are "long–term".

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru22.10.2013