Purdue Professor Discusses How to Keep Your Brain Healthy...
Purdue Professor Discusses How to Keep Your Brain Healthy As You Age
- Cognitively stimulating neighborhoods with creative activities benefit brain health as people age.
- Social bonds and learning from neighbors can also help preserve cognitive function.
- This effect is most pronounced for adults aged 60-80 years old.
STATEWIDE–Active communities can keep a person’s brain healthy as they age. That’s the sentiment from Purdue University Sociology Professor Kenneth Ferraro.
According to Ferraro’s research, people 60 to 80 years old who lived in a cognitively stimulating neighborhood were more likely to preserve their cognition in their later years.
“Most important factors in cognitively stimulating neighborhoods that we found were museums, libraries, college-educated neighbors, as well as fitness centers and organizations for the creative arts. So creative arts are very important, and they help people stimulate their brains in ways that are beneficial for them in later life. The idea is active learning. People could say, ‘Well, I get cognitive stimulation by watching TV.’ True, but that’s a passive type of learning. What we want to think about is cognitive challenge. So even board games or card games are beneficial. When you get a neighborhood that values and prioritizes these sorts of lectures, creative endeavors, dramatic events, those are valuable for cognition in later life,” said Ferraro.
Age is important for cognitive function, because a lot of people are going to lose cognitive function in later life. Specific types of cognitive function more so than others. But there’s a general trend where we are going to have slower recall of events and have more difficulty recalling those.
“But what we find is that people who are challenged, they experience cognitive challenges, are better able to preserve their cognitive function in later life. And what we think about is that people are valuing learning new things, appreciating old things when they go to museums or take in a lecture, public lecture. Those sorts of activities are beneficial for the older person who’s consuming them,” said Ferraro.
He argues that community is important for two reasons.
“No. 1, social bonds. So there’s some literature out there that, social isolation and loneliness is actually an accelerant to cognitive decline. So part of it is just being built into a community and having lasting relationships. Secondly is modeling. So we observe and we learn from neighbors because they share recipes and books that they’ve read or lectures that they’ve attended, and they influence us in that way.
He reminds you that this is certainly not for everyone and not for every age.
“But in this window of 60 to 80 years, living in a cognitively stimulating neighborhood helps preserve cognitive function,” said Ferraro.
