Combining endurance activities with muscle strengthening, playing team sports, and indulging in interactive video games that get you moving… here are some ways to boost your brain and cognitive abilities after age 60.
Have you ever thought about why we have brains? The obvious answer might be “think”. But scientist Daniel Wolpert offered an entirely different explanation at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience meeting: “We have brains for one reason and one reason only: to produce adaptive and complex movementsOur brain is the conductor of our body, it organizes our movements and actions.
Use your brain to keep it efficient
Concentration, acquisition of knowledge, reasoning, adaptation and interaction with others: all these abilities that allow us to interact with the environment are grouped together in what we call cognitive abilities. They play a key role in daily life activities and help maintain a good quality of life.
Their deterioration, as well as bodily functions, affects the quality of life and disrupts people’s everyday life. Therefore, it is important to use our brain as much as possible so that it remains effective for as long as possible.
Contrary to popular belief, the brain does not deteriorate continuously with age. From the age of 45, it goes through normal aging, which leads to a decrease, in particular, in the number of neurons and the efficiency of connections. But the plasticity of the brain, although reduced, is present until the end of life. Each individual will create a “cognitive reserve” throughout his life.
The more positive, rich and stimulating the lifestyle, the more powerful and effective the reserve. It is possible to mitigate the effects that advanced age has on cognition, which represents a huge opportunity for people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to access an affluent lifestyle.
The benefits of physical activity on cognitive abilities after the age of 60
Numerous studies have shown that physical activity improves cognitive abilities even after the age of 60. Memory gain, better responsiveness, stronger planning options: the advantages are multiple.
Despite this, few older people still practice physical activity adapted to their health situation, in a sufficiently long-term way. The lack of desire, availability and attractiveness of the doctor’s office are some of the obstacles to engaging in an active lifestyle.
It is tempting to offer routine single-task activities to older adults due to declining physical, cognitive, and sensory abilities. Indeed, the provision of physical activity as well as research in this area have long revolved around the same triptych: light gymnastics, walking, yoga. However, combining different training components can create greater gains.
Three ingredients for training the brain of the elderly
Researchers are currently focused on creating an ideal, motivational training prescription for the elderly that combines physical and cognitive exercise. This formula would consist of 3 main ingredients:
The first ingredient: complex physical and motor stimulation of at least moderate intensity
Sustained physical activity, with at least a moderate intensity of effort, can not only improve cardiorespiratory health, but also make the brain more efficient. It creates an improvement in cardiovascular fitness, which allows the brain to receive more oxygen. Research has shown that this can be accompanied by the creation of new neurons in the hippocampus, the seat of memory.
Certainly, programs that excel in improving cognitive function must consist of endurance physical activity. But they also need to be combined with muscle strengthening, flexibility and balance exercises to achieve greater benefit. In addition, the researchers emphasize the benefit of adding situations that require complex motor skills and coordination as they would significantly boost cognitive functions (for example, memory, attention or even mental flexibility), especially among the elderly.
The second ingredient: integrate cognitive stimulation into training
By “cognitive stimulation” we mean stimulation that uses cognitive functions, such as retaining information for a certain time and carrying it out, predicting actions, implementing a strategy, etc. When cognitive stimulation is combined with physical activity, it can produce synergistic effects and therefore be more effective on cognitive functions.
The third ingredient: collective activities that lead to social interactions
Exercising within the group would lead to increased compliance with the program, that is, persistence in following the program. The inherent attractiveness of the physical activities offered must be a lever for involving people in physical practice.
But what solutions do we have to respect this ideal recipe? Two types of practices could prove interesting and are currently the subject of research among older adults.
Opt for team sports of cooperation and opposition
Team sports offer much more than just physical exercise. They require cardiorespiratory endurance, but also involve overall physical condition.
Let’s take basketball or handball for example: balance, coordination and flexibility are essential for moving around the court, dribbling or scoring a goal. Likewise, muscle power is used to pass, return the ball or change direction. These team sports can be suitable even after the age of 60, if they are carried out and supervised properly.
At the cognitive level, these activities always create new, rich and stimulating situations. This double combination of stimulations is called simultaneous training. Several researchers highlight the importance of this cognitive engagement in team sports and encourage their participation, especially among older people.
Recent studies, such as one conducted by French researchers in 2022, have shown that participating in team sports improves visual-spatial memory in the short term (making it possible, for example, to remember the location of certain objects for a certain amount of time). planning abilities in the elderly.
Play video games that move the body
It might also be interesting to play these video games called “exergames” that require players to move their bodies to interact with the games. They bear this name in reference to the abbreviation of the words “exercises” and “games” (games, in English) and have been popularized since the 2000s with consoles such as Wii and Nintendo Switch or Microsoft Kinect.
They are designed to challenge different aspects of physical fitness, such as balance, endurance, strength and coordination, while stimulating cognitive function. Among older adults, several studies show that this type of training is effective in improving many physical and cognitive abilities.
During 2020, a new generation of exergames appeared, which uses interactive walls to create an even more immersive gaming experience, such as Neo-One from Neo Xperiences, ExerCube from Sphery or even Interactive Area from Lü. In these games that mix the real and virtual worlds, physical (like balloons) and digital objects coexist and interact in real time.
A recent study compared an immersive wall-assisted exercise program with a walking and strength training program. His results suggest that this new generation of exigar games may prove more effective on cognitive abilities than traditional training.
In conclusion, we understand that combined physical and cognitive activities provide a dynamic and social environment that stimulates the brain while allowing us to remain physically active. This is necessary for an active and fulfilling life, regardless of age.
This article was written by researchers Neva Béraud-Peigné, Alexandra Perrot and Pauline Maillot and published on the site Conversation.
