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Intellectual pursuits may help prevent Alzheimer’s

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January 30, 2012|By Deborah Kotz

(ISTOCKPHOTO.COM )

Reading, playing a variety of games, and engaging in other intellectual pursuits on a daily basis over the course of a lifetime could help prevent the formation of amyloid plaques that gunk up the brain and are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. But we may need to get our brains engaged early in life - years or decades before we start to forget things - to reap the most benefits.

In the first study of its kind, researchers used positron emission tomography scans to examine the amount of beta amyloid deposits in the brains of healthy seniors with no signs of dementia and found that those who reported doing daily brainy activities from the age of 6 onward had very low levels of amyloid plaque - on par with of an average person in their early 20s. Those who never or rarely engaged in these activities had higher plaque levels, according to the study published online last week in the Archives of Neurology.

This could mean that by the time people start to forget their phone number or where they live, it may be too late to prevent further progression of the disease.

“It was fascinating to see that no one who engaged in high levels of cognitive activity had high levels of these plaques,’’ said study leader Susan Landau, a research scientist at the University of California-Berkeley’s Neuroscience Institute. “We assume many of the healthy people with amyloid plaques will go on to develop Alzheimer’s later on, though the imaging technology hasn’t been around long enough to confirm this.’’

Previous research indicates that the plaque forms in areas of the brain associated with default behaviors that we do automatically, such as brushing our teeth or driving a car while we’re daydreaming.

“When you learn something new, you need to pay attention to your external world and that leads to decreased activity in the default areas, which could lead to less plaque,’’ explained Dr. Reisa Sperling, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital Alzheimer’s researcher who was not involved in the study.

Sperling added that the study was small - involving fewer than 100 participants - and couldn’t account for certain factors that may have confounded the results, including socioeconomic factors, diet, and overall health behaviors.

“I think it’s a little too early to say that there is a cause and effect relationship, but the finding is intriguing,’’ Sperling said, and “I definitely think there’s enough data now to encourage’’ people to make lifestyle changes - the earlier, the better.