Mild cognitive decline reversible in older people
How many books a person reads and how open they are to new experiences may tell us more than just about their personality and lifestyle. New research suggests these factors can help reverse mild cognitive problems in older age.
By Linda Belardi.
Mild cognitive decline can be reversed in older people who maintain a physically and mentally active lifestyle, a new study has found.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales measured the brain functioning of 223 people aged 71-89 diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment to identify factors associated with reversion to normal brain functioning.
In the study “reverters” reported more frequent engagement in mental activities such as reading books, suggesting that they had a higher degree of brain or cognitive reserve than non-reverters.
“Individuals with high brain reserve have a greater buffer in the process of their decline before they reach a threshold for diagnosis of dementia,” the authors wrote in the latest edition of the journal, PLOS One.
This superior performance may be related to an “efficient set of neural networks” or a wider repertoire of cognitive strategies, the authors said.
Scientia Professor Perminder Sachdev from the School of Neuropsychiatry at UNSW said older people were also more likely to show improvement in follow-up tests if they were creative and open to new experiences.
Participants who had good control of their blood pressure also increased their likelihood of reversion.
After the two-year period, there were 66 reverters to normal cognition and 157 non-reverters.
The authors concluded that participation in cognitively enriching activities and efforts to lower blood pressure might promote reversion. For patients with low engagement in cognitive-rich experiences, activities suited to their interests, abilities and capacities should be identified and encouraged.
Screening people for these factors may also help identify patients most at risk of further cognitive decline and in need of intervention, the authors said.
“Knowing which individuals classified as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are more likely to revert to normal could help optimise the allocation of resources among MCI patients,” they wrote.
Read the full results here: Factors Predicting Reversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Normal Cognitive Functioning: A Population-Based Study.
Factors associated with reversion to normal brain functioning:
- Greater level of mental activity
- Better control of blood pressure
- A larger left hippocampus/amygdale
- Better visual acuity
- Better smelling ability
