Every day more people anticipate, and like little ants they save and save part of their money today worrying about the economic future in their old age. Is it your case? Well, we should ask ourselves if the economic future is the only thing that should worry us for tomorrow. The answer is a definit no. What’s more, if you don’t already have it, maybe you should start thinking about making a ‘brain pension plan’ . It is what scientists call cognitive reserve . Research recently published in the journal Psychology highlights the importance of caring for the brain and stimulating it in various ways throughout life.
But why do I need a cognitive reserve? In their study, Jorge Herrera and his collaborators applied the Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire to a group of 64 healthy people who complained of memory problems. They divided the participants into two groups, those with high and those with low cognitive reserve, and then compared their performance on various neuropsychological tests of attention, memory, verbal fluency, and access to vocabulary. The result showed that the high cognitive reserve group scored significantly higher than the low reserve group on all measures used to assess mental status. This indicates that the more participants did for their brains throughout life, the better off they were when they reached a later age.
And so how can I get a high cognitive reserve? These are not really fancy activities. Your level of studies and training courses are an example. Habits like reading, playing a musical instrument, or speaking languages are other options. And also included here are hobbies and other intellectual games, which were traditionally pencil and paper but can now be practiced using new technologies. There are many options to choose from, which one is yours?
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
