Brain Training Game Reduces Dementia Risk 25% Over 20 Years, NIH-Funded Study Finds

A large long-term study published Feb. 9 in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions found that older adults who practiced a type of brain training focused on visual speed were 25% less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, even 20 years later. The National Institutes of Health-funded trial followed nearly 3,000 people age 65 and older.

Visual processing speed refers to how quickly the brain reacts to what's happening around a person, especially at the edges of vision. The type of training used in the study was first developed by psychologists Karlene Ball and Daniel Roenker, whose research helped shape what scientists now call speed training. Their work later became the foundation for a brain exercise known today as Double Decision, which is available through the online brain-training platform BrainHQ.

Instead of asking people to memorize facts or solve word puzzles, speed training focuses on teaching the brain to see, process and react faster. In a typical exercise, a person looks at the center of a screen and quickly decides between two images, such as which car appeared first. At the same time, they must notice where a road sign flashes briefly in their side vision.

Over time, the game gets harder: The images appear faster, the objects look more alike, "distractors" are added, and the side images move farther from the center. The goal is to push the brain to process visual information faster and across a wider field of view.

Participants in the trial were assigned to speed training, memory training, reasoning training or no training. Those who completed speed training with booster sessions, up to 23 hours over three years, saw a benefit. A director of cognitive neurology at NYU Langone Health in New York City said it's the strongest evidence to date he has seen supporting the use of cognitive training.

Experts think speed training works because it builds implicit skills, the kind the brain learns deeply and retains, like riding a bike. "Once the brain rewires for these skills, the change is durable even without continued practice," said a neurology instructor at Harvard Medical School. "A child can learn how to ride a bike in about 10 hours, and afterwards that learning lasts a lifetime."

Researchers also note that speed training constantly adjusts to a person's performance. "We also compared people with different genetic predispositions to developing dementia and saw the same results — meaning coffee or caffeine is likely equally beneficial for people with high and low genetic risk of developing dementia," a doctoral student at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health said in a news release.

Still, experts stress that brain training is not a cure-all. "Anyone with a brain is at risk of Alzheimer's and everyone out there should be paying attention to their brain health," a preventive neurologist said.