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A new study from the University of York has found that older adults who engage in digital puzzle games have a memory capacity comparable to that of a 20-year-old. The research confirms the long-held belief of scientists that engaging in mentally stimulating activities can help preserve brain function in old age.
Working memory is the ability to remember a number of things at a single time, which is known to decrease with age. Previous studies have shown that the way we store information in our brain changes as we get older.
The York team looked at the effects of particular types of mental stimulation like gaming and whether it alters effects on recollection depending on age.
How engaging in mentally stimulating activities can benefit brain function in old age
The study found that old people above 60 who played digital puzzle games had good memory like young folks.
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Moreover, the research showed that older adults who played these games were better at blocking out useless distractions than those playing strategy games. However, those older adults playing strategy games didn't see the same memory or focus improvements as the younger ones.
The study included both older and younger adults playing digital games that they would typically play in their real life. That led to a wide variety of games being tested, along with an experiment that had participants memorizing images while being distracted.
Role of gaming in memory improvement: age-related differences explored
Dr. Fiona McNab, from the University of York's Department of Psychology, has said that previous research has focused mainly on action games, as it's thought to help with attention and recollection.
However, McNab's new analysis shows that the action elements do not offer significant benefits to younger adults. It's instead the strategy elements of games like planning and problem-solving that stimulate better memory and attention in younger people.
"We don't see this same effect in older adults, and more research is needed to understand why this is.
"We can't yet rule out that the strategy games played by older people are not as challenging as the games played by younger people, and that the level of challenge might be important in memory improvement," McNab said.
The study said that playing digital puzzle games can help old folks with their mental health and brain skills.
It showed that it's important to keep the brain challenged, no matter how old you are, to keep it healthy.
Dr. Joe Cutting, from the University of York's Department of Computer Science, said that older people are generally better equipped to ignore irrelevant distractions, something that's commonly referred to as "encoding distraction." However, this ability starts to decline with age.
Cutting says that playing puzzle games seems to support mental capabilities to the extent that memory and concentration levels in older adults are on a par with a 20-year old who has never played puzzle games.
Games could be a potential solution for maintaining cognitive abilities in older adults
One surprising finding of the study was that older people who only played strategy games forgot to commit elements to memory while being distracted. However, young people had more difficulty focusing on a task if they played only puzzle games.
The researchers have recommended future studies that focus on why there's a discrepancy between the effects of different types of games, depending on the player's age. The team wishes to explore whether that's connected to how the brain stores information as people age.
