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The study cohort included approximately 2,800 individuals with an average age of 74 at the start of the study. Half of the subjects were randomized to a training group and the other half to a control group. All subjects were community-dwelling adults who did not show signs of significant cognitive decline. The training group received training sessions in reasoning, information-processing speed, and memory—domains that show declines with aging. The training produced significant improvements in all three cognitive areas. Ten years later, most of the cognitively trained subjects were still at or above their baseline level in reasoning and speed processing; this was not the case for the controls, in whom deterioration of these cognitive functions was seen at the 10-year follow-up. However, the memory improvements that the training group had initially made were not sustained a decade later.
"One of the most common questions asked by our older patients is, 'What can I do to prevent memory loss?' " Art Walaszek, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin and a geriatric psychiatrist, noted in an interview with Psychiatric News. "This study, impressive for its large sample size and long-term follow-up, helps answer this question.... It appears that cognitive training may help older adults with their reasoning skills, processing speed, and activities of daily living, but not with memory. This raises the intriguing possibility that, though memory decline may be difficult to avoid, older adults may be able to develop other cognitive skills in order to maintain their functioning."
More information about ways in which older individuals can retain or even improve their cognition can be found in the book "Successful Cognitive and Emotional Aging" from American Psychiatric Publishing.
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