How Do Cognitively Stimulating Activities Affect Cognition and the Brain Throughout Life?

Mather, Mara

doi:10.1177/1529100620941808

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Individuals with good friendships have numerous opportunities to practice social skills, during which neural circuits related to social interactions are fully developed and function normally until old age ( 23 ). Here, social activity engagement was significantly related to cognitive function among older people, which is consistent with the “Use It or Lose It” hypothesis ( 28 ) and previous findings ( 26 , 27 , 29 , 47 ). Social activities provide cognitive stimulation to exercise the brain and keep the mind active, which contributes to cognitive health.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Thus, interventions to encourage an active social life over the life course are beneficial. Many studies have shown that participating in social activities in early life ( 7 ) and later life ( 26 , 27 , 29 ) improves cognitive abilities. However, this evidence was limited to the individual level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The “Use It or Lose It” hypothesis postulates that social activity engagement provides the elderly with intellectual stimulation, helping them exercise brain function ( 28 ). This kind of cognitively stimulating lifestyle enables the elderly to better maintain their cognitive abilities ( 29 ). Therefore, we proposed a fourth hypothesis: Childhood friendship and social activity engagement play chain mediating roles between childhood neighborhood cohesion and cognitive function in later life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Early Neighborhood Cohesion, and Its Mechanism, on Cognitive Function in Later Life

et al. 2022

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ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore the impact of early neighborhood cohesion, and its mechanism, on cognitive function in later life.MethodsIn total, 10,727 Chinese elderly, aged 60–90, forming two datasets (2014 and 2018) from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) were used as a sample. Childhood neighborhood cohesion was measured by the extent of how much neighbors were willing to help and how close-knit neighbors were. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10) were used to assess the cognitive functions and depression of the elderly. We used a structural equation model to examine the relationship between early neighborhood cohesion and late-life cognitive function and conducted bootstrapping analyses to assess the mechanism.ResultsCognitive function was positively predicted by childhood neighborhood cohesion (β = 0.06, p < 0.001), and cognitive function of the elderly were also positively predicted through the mediating effects of childhood friendships, which included depression and social activity participation as two chain paths.ConclusionThe findings suggest that childhood neighborhood cohesion positively predicts cognitive function among elderly people through the mediating roles of childhood friendship, depression, and social activity engagement. Childhood neighborhood cohesion is correlated with better childhood friendships, then to fewer depression symptoms and greater elderly social activity participation, and finally to better cognitive functions in the elderly.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Early Neighborhood Cohesion, and Its Mechanism, on Cognitive Function in Later Life

et al. 2022

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“…We found positive associations between early RfP and youths' higher cognitive test scores, which showed improvements in dimensional cognitive performance covering major neurocognitive domains, regressing out the family SES (53) statuses. The results demonstrated that early RfP had similar beneficial associations with cognition as educational attainments (EA), since EA were positively associated with cognitive function in later-life (19), which might partly be due to cognitive enrichments (54)(55)(56). Our findings extend the importance of formal education to an enjoyable early educational activity during the critical formative stage.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Early Childhood Reading for Pleasure: Evidence from the ABCD Study for Benefits to Cognitive Performance and Mental Health and Associated Changes in Brain Structure

Sun

Sahakian

Langley

et al. 2022

Preprint

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BACKGROUND: Early childhood has increasingly been recognized as an important neurodevelopmental period. However, the links between specific forms of early educational activities and cognition and mental health remain unclear. METHODS: A large-scale analysis on the attainments of childhood Reading for Pleasure (early RfP) and its relationship with young adolescent measures of cognition, mental health and brain structure was conducted, using linear mixed-effects model, structural equation and mediation analyses. Participants were from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, a USA national cohort (n=11,875). A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis using genetic instruments from two independent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) based on ABCD and GWAS meta-analyses including UK-biobank datasets were conducted to assess potential causal inference. RESULTS: Early RfP was positively associated with cognitive assessments, which in contrast, was negatively associated with dimensional psychiatric problems in young adolescents. MR analysis revealed a beneficial relationship between early RfP and later-life cognitive performance, and a trend towards a protective relationship between early RfP and later-life attention disorder. Brain regions in which larger cortical areas were positively associated with early RfP included the superior temporal, prefrontal, left angular, parahippocampal, right anterior cingulate (ACC), occipital, supramarginal and orbital regions and subcortical ventral diencephalon (DC), thalamus, and brainstem volumes. Mediation analysis indicated that the brain regions significantly mediated the effects of early RfP with better cognitive performance and lower psychiatric problems. INTERPRETATION: Our results highlight the importance of encouraging RfP in young children during the critical early childhood stage, as it was associated with beneficial outcomes for cognition, mental health, and brain structure later in life.

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“…The protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been implicated in the beneficial effects of cognitively stimulating activities as it is a regulator of synaptic transmission, inducing long-term changes in excitability and synaptic plasticity in the adult brain (Miranda et al, 2019 ). Cognitive stimulation, which increases BDNF levels in the brain in BDNF+/− mice compared with wildtype (Novkovic et al, 2015 ), has also been shown to play an important role in learning and memory (Mather, 2020 ). Higher serum BDNF levels have been suggested to protect against dementia occurrence (Weinstein et al, 2014 ), therefore they may represent an important mediator of the beneficial effects of cognitively stimulating activities on cognitive reserve and dementia risk.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association Between Components of Cognitive Reserve and Serum BDNF in Healthy Older Adults

Collins

Hill

Bindoff

et al. 2021

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Background: The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein has been shown to have a prominent role in neuron survival, growth, and function in experimental models, and the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism which regulates its expression has been linked to resilience toward the effects of aging on cognition. Cognitively stimulating activity is linked to both increased levels of BDNF in the brain, and protection against age-related cognitive decline. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between serum BDNF levels, the BDNF Val66Met genotype, and components of cognitive reserve in early and mid-life, measured with the Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ).Methods: Serum BDNF levels were measured cross-sectionally in 156 participants from the Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project (THBP) cohort, a study examining the potential benefits of older adults engaging in a university-level education intervention. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate serum BDNF’s association with age, education, gender, BDNF Val66Met genotype, later-life university-level study, and cognitively stimulating activities measured by the LEQ.Results: Serum BDNF in older adults was associated with early life education and training, increasing 0.007 log(pg/ml) [95%CI 0.001, 0.012] per unit on the LEQ subscale. Conversely, education and training in mid-life were associated with a −0.007 log(pg/ml) [−0.012, −0.001] decrease per unit on the LEQ subscale. Serum BDNF decreased with age (−0.008 log(pg/ml) [−0.015, −0.001] per year), and male gender (−0.109 log(pg/ml) [−0.203, −0.015]), but mean differences between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphisms were not significant (p = 0.066). All effect sizes were small, with mid-life education and training having the largest effect size (ηp2 = 0.044).Conclusion: Education in both early and mid-life explained small but significant amounts of variance in serum BDNF levels, more than age or gender. These effects were opposed and independent, suggesting that education at different stages of life may be associated with different cognitive and neural demands. Education at different stages of life may be important covariates when estimating associations between other exposures and serum BDNF.

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How Do Cognitively Stimulating Activities Affect Cognition and the Brain Throughout Life?

Cited by 20 publications

References 48 publications

The Impact of Early Neighborhood Cohesion, and Its Mechanism, on Cognitive Function in Later Life

The Impact of Early Neighborhood Cohesion, and Its Mechanism, on Cognitive Function in Later Life

Early Childhood Reading for Pleasure: Evidence from the ABCD Study for Benefits to Cognitive Performance and Mental Health and Associated Changes in Brain Structure

Association Between Components of Cognitive Reserve and Serum BDNF in Healthy Older Adults

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