Physical and mental activities help alleviate cognitive decline and delay dementia, but these benefits differ for men and women.
- The hippocampus is a key region of the brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
- For mental activity, participants scored an average of 1.4 points. As for sport, they did at least 15 minutes a week.
- Doubling the amount of physical activity would equate to about 2.75 years less aging in thinking skills.
Gardening, reading, walking, playing cards or dancing help preserve thinking skills and slow the onset of dementia, according to several studies. But “the question is whether the association between lifestyle activities and cognitive reserve varies by gender”, said researchers from the University of California, San Diego (USA). In order to find out for sure, they conducted a study, the results of which were published in the journal neurology.
As part of this work, the scientists examined the interactions between sex and physical or cognitive activities on cognitive reserve for speed and memory in older adults. As a reminder, “Cognitive reserve is the buffer that occurs when people have strong thinking skills even when their brain shows signs of underlying changes associated with cognitive decline and dementia,” can we read in a statement.
Measuring cognitive reserve
For the purposes of the study, the team recruited 758 people with an average age of 76 years. A portion of the participants had no thinking or memory problems, some suffered from mild cognitive impairment and others suffered from dementia. The volunteers had to perform brain scans and thinking and memory tests. To measure their cognitive reserve, the results of thinking tests were compared to brain changes associated with dementia, such as the total volume of the hippocampus.
Adults were also asked about their usual weekly physical activity. Regarding mental activity, the authors asked them if they had carried out three types of activities in the past 13 months: reading magazines, newspapers or books, attending classes and playing cards. , games or bingo. They got one point for each type of activity, for a maximum of three points.
Attenuated beneficial effects in women
According to the results, higher physical activity scores were associated with greater speed in women, but not in men. “More self-reported cognitive activity increased the tendency for greater memory reserve in women”, can we read in the works. Clearly, the associations of physical and mental activities with thinking are more pronounced in women.
Next, the scientists investigated whether the link between physical and mental activities and cognitive reserve was affected by the gene that carries the greatest risk of Alzheimer’s, called “APOE e4”. They found that, in women, the presence of this gene mediates the effects of the beneficial relationship between physical and mental activities and cognitive reserve.
The researchers reported that the study did not prove that physical and mental activities helped improve cognitive reserve. It only showed an association. “Future studies are needed to understand the causal relationship between gender, lifestyle activities, and genetic factors on cognitive reserve in older adults to better understand which lifestyle activities may be the more beneficial and for whom”, they concluded.