A study released this month suggests that playing video games may help seniors improve their mental function. While the study was small, the results showed that older adults who learn to play a video game that involves strategy improved their scores on a number of tests of cognitive function.

In the study, which appears in the journal Psychology and Aging, a group of 40 men and women in their 60s and 70s played the off-the-shelf video game "Rise of Nations” for about 23 hours over the period of a month. The object of the game is to world domination, which requires mastering a complex set of tasks including military strategy, city building, managing economies, and feeding and employing people.

Study participants showed improvement in several tests of cognitive abilities compared to a group of similarly aged seniors who did not play the video game. Game players became better at multi-tasking and faster and faster at switching between tasks than the comparison group. They also showed improvements in tests of short-term memory and general reasoning ability. To a lesser extent, playing the game improved participants’ short-term memory for visual cues and their ability to identify rotated objects.

According to researchers, this is first-of-its-kind of older adults and video games is also the first video game study to show improvements in cognitive skills that were not directly related to the skills learned in the video game.

While the findings are preliminary, they suggest that video games involving strategy may help older adults keep their brains sharp. If further research confirms this, video games may be added to the list of things known to keep the aging brain acting young, a list that already includes physical activity, social interaction, and daily intellectual pursuits such as reading and writing.

So if you are an older adult, perhaps this holiday season you may want to pay a little more attention to that new video game system your grandkids got. It just might turn out to be the ticket to a youthful brain.

Do you have a technique for keeping your brain fit? Share it with others at the Healia Health Community for Healthy Aging.


_{Photo: RebeccaPollard, Flickr, Creative Commons}