Do you want to keep your brain healthy? Visiting friends, attending parties, attending sporting events, and even going to church can be as beneficial to your neurons as solving crossword puzzles . Scientists at Rush University Medical Center (USA) have concluded that frequent social activity helps prevent or delay the cognitive decline that accompanies aging. In the study, published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , the researchers worked with 1,138 with a mean age of 80 years and measured their levels of social activity. At the beginning of the investigation, all showed some cognitive problems but, after 5 years, those who were more socially active experienced a deterioration in memory, perception speed, visuospatial capacity and other cognitive functions up to 75% slower than the subjects less socially active.
Why social activity plays such a crucial role in mental health is not entirely clear. According to Bryan James, co-author of the study, a possible explanation is that "social activity challenges the elderly to participate in complex interpersonal exchanges that stimulate certain neural networks that if not used are lost."
