Study Links Busy Schedules to Better Cognitive Function

Maintaining a busier schedule may be linked to better performance on tests of memory, information processing, and reasoning in older adults, according to a new study.

The authors, who note that past research has determined that older adults who are more physically, mentally, and socially active are likely to experience better mental function and lower risk of dementia, evaluated 330 men and women from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study, a large-scale multimodal assessment of cognition and brain health, structure, and function in healthy adults.
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The current sample included participants from a highly screened, elite cohort, as well as a second cohort with more lenient screening criteria, according to the authors, who noted that the second cohort was recruited in order to achieve a broader range in variability in various demographic variables, including health, education, and socioeconomic status.

The investigators asked participants, who ranged in age from 50 and 89 years old, to rate their busyness levels, asking subjects questions about how often they have too many things to do in a given day to actually get them all done, for example. Those taking part also underwent a battery of tests designed to gauge memory, information processing speed, reasoning, and vocabulary.

Lead author Sara Festini, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas, and colleagues determined that those who kept busier daily schedules performed better on the aforementioned tests, particularly with regard to remembering specific events from the past. These findings were not explained by age or education level, the authors noted, with Festini pointing out that “the present findings are correlational, so we are not able to make conclusions about a causal relationship.”

Based on these findings, along with those of prior studies, “primary care practitioners may want to encourage middle-aged and older adults to maintain active, busy lives,” Festini said, “as we find that busier lifestyles were associated with better mental function.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference

Festini S, McDonough I, Park DC. The busier the better: greater busyness is associated with better cognition [published online May 17, 2016]. Front. Aging Neurosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00098.