Mental Training Bestows Youthful Vigor on Aging Brains
[17 February 2006 - MedPage Today] With a little task-specific training, the brains of older individuals can blunt cognitive functional decline and start to look and act younger, researchers here said. Training for specific tasks not only improved performance in older people but caused increased activity in the ventral prefrontal cortex, a common site of age-related atrophy, reported Kirk I. Erickson, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois here. ... MedPage Today Action Points: Advise patients who ask that this study suggests that age-related cognitive decline may be reduced or reversed with task-specific training, although further studies will be needed before specific interventions can be recommended. ...