People with mild cognitive impairment may go on to develop dementia, but some people never get worse and others can improve.
Doing crossword puzzles helps improve the thinking skills of seniors with mild cognitive impairment.
By contrast, computer-based cognitive training failed to deliver the same benefits.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is worse than the usual decline of memory and thinking skills with age, but is not full-blown dementia.
People with MCI may go on to develop dementia, but some people never get worse and others can improve.
Professor D.P. Devanand, the study’s first author, said:
“This is the first study to document both short-term and longer-term benefits for home-based crossword puzzles training compared to another intervention.
The results are important in light of the difficulty in showing improvement with interventions in mild cognitive impairment.”
For the study, 107 people with mild cognitive impairment either did crossword puzzles or cognitive games training for three months.
An 18-month follow-up revealed that those who did crossword puzzles showed sustained improvements in their cognitive skills.
Meanwhile, performance declined for participants in the cognitive games group.
People who did the crossword puzzles also maintained more of their abilities to carry out daily tasks, such as preparing meals, paying bills and remembering appointments.
Brain shrinkage was also reduced in the group that did crossword puzzles.
Professor Devanand said:
“The benefits were seen not only in cognition but also in daily activities with indications of brain shrinkage on MRI that suggests that the effects are clinically meaningful.”
The researchers found that crossword puzzles were superior for participants who were at a later stage of the disease.
Professor Murali Doraiswamy, study co-author, said:
“The trifecta of improving cognition, function and neuroprotection is the Holy Grail for the field.
Further research to scale brain training as a home-based digital therapeutic for delaying Alzheimer’s should be a priority for the field.”
Related
The study was published in the journal NEJM Evidence (Devanand et al., 2022).
