Challenge is good for the brain

Just as physical activity is important for a healthy body, mental activity is important for a healthy brain. Mental activity during life ensures that you build up a cognitive reserve.’ With the support of Alzheimer Nederland, Jet Vonk is investigating the influence of this cognitive reserve on memory loss in the elderly. Her research shows that a high cognitive reserve has a positive influence on the preservation of memory.

According to Vonk, a cognitive reserve is actually a way of explaining why there is no one-to-one relationship between brain damage and dementia symptoms. You can have two people with the same amount of brain damage and still have different symptoms. One person has not yet suffered from anything, while the other already shows starting memory complaints. Vonk: ‘By building up a high cognitive reserve during your life, your brain can later compensate for brain damage.’

Cognitive reserve and intelligence

Cognitive reserve is not the same as intelligence, explains Vonk. ‘Intelligence is reasonably fixed at birth, but you build up a cognitive reserve during life. Education is a way of measuring cognitive reserves, but you can also look at a person’s physical or social activity during life.’

Positive Effects on Memory

Vonk has mapped out the cognitive reserves of nearly a thousand people in her research. She used education and reading skills for this. ‘We then followed people over a long period of time, no less than twelve years. At various times we measured memory and compared it with cognitive reserve. We saw a subtle difference, in which the memory of people with a higher cognitive reserve deteriorated less quickly.’

Improve quality of life

The next step in this area is to determine whether increasing cognitive stimulation can delay the memory symptoms of dementia. Other scientists are already investigating this. According to Vonk, it is important to point out that a high cognitive reserve cannot stop the disease. ‘It does not slow down the disease process in the brain, but it does offer an opportunity for a better quality of life if symptoms such as memory complaints can be postponed. Even if you already have starting memory problems, you can work on cognitive stimulation. For example, being and staying socially active is very important for everyone.’

Keep stimulating

In addition to being socially active, physical and mental activity are important for cognitive stimulation later in life and contribute to building and maintaining your cognitive reserve throughout life. Challenges to work on cognitive stimulation can be found in your job, but also in your free time. Think, for example, of making a difficult puzzle or learning another language. A walk in nature or cooking a new recipe are also challenging activities for the brain.

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