Jan. 23, 2012

By Patricia Nicholson

Keeping your brain busy now may help keep it healthy later.

New research links a lifetime of brain-stimulating activities with lower levels of beta-amyloid protein – the main component of the brain plaque that is the defining characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. The study used a new imaging technique to measure beta-amyloids in living brains.

Reading, doing puzzles and pursuing other activities that engage the brain have long been believed to help keep the brain healthy as it ages, and to ward off cognitive problems including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the University of California designed a study to test that theory in living subjects.

The study included 75 people in their mid-70s: 65 healthy volunteers, and 10 people with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a control group of 11 young people in their mid-20s. All of the participants were followed for six years, during which time they underwent cognitive testing as well as brain imaging, and provided information about activities such as reading, writing and playing games, as well as physical activities.

The results showed that people who had a high level of brain engagement over their lifetime – and particularly in early and middle life – had lower beta-amyloid protein deposits. The beta-amyloid levels seen in the brain scans of the older people with the highest levels of cognitive engagement were similar to those of the young controls, while those with the lowest levels of cognitive activity were more similar to the beta-amyloid levels seen in the Alzheimer’s patients.

This suggests that cognitively stimulating activities may help slow or prevent these deposits, and that activities earlier in life may have an impact on the progression of cognitive problems later in life. 

However, given the complex nature of Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers note that brain-stimulating activities may be part of a larger lifestyle pattern that helps to protect against cognitive problems. Education levels were also linked to beta-amyloid levels, but not as strongly as cognitive activities. Physical activity was linked to cognitive activity, but not directly linked to beta-amyloid levels.

The study appears in the Jan. 23 issue of Archives of Neurology.