A study was recently conducted on 2,802 adults with an average age of 74 and it was discovered that it reduced participant’s risk of dementia by 29 percent!
Dr. Ball, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dr. Dan Roenker, of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green developed the intervention known as “speed-of-processing training”, and they launched the study, the largest study of cognitive training to date.
For your information:
- Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States
- More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s
- Every 66 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s disease
- In 2017 treatment of Alzheimer’s and other dementias cost the Nation 259 billion
- It is estimated that by 2050 those costs could rise as high as 1.1 trillion
The “speed-of-processing” training is a task that aims to improve a user’s visual attention – that is, the speed and accuracy with which a person can identify and remember objects in front of them.
Training involves a computer game called “Double Decision”, where the user is asked to spot an object in the center of their gaze while also identifying an object in their peripheral vision. As the game goes on the user has less time to spot the object and distractors are added to the screen to make the process more difficult.
All of the study groups underwent cognitive and functional assessments after the first 6 weeks and in years 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 years. The incidence of dementia among the subjects over the 10 year follow-up was also assessed.
It was determined that the speed-of-processing training resulted in a 20 percent reduced risk of dementia over 10 years, and that each additional training session was associated with a 10 percent lower dementia risk.
The results of this study give us great hope when it comes to our being able to potentially do something to reduce the risk of getting dementia or perhaps to avoid getting it altogether.
Vimeo, a video hosting and sharing platform has videos of Double Decision, Eye for Detail and Hawk Eye – all “speed-of-processing” videos for you to view. Check them out!
When you are ready you can sign up for a monthly membership with Brain HQ so that you can play their games and improve your chances of maintaining a healthy brain at www.brainhq.com.
