Can You Get Smarter? (The New York Times):
“A few years back, a joint study by BBC and Cambridge University neuroscientists put brain training to the test…There was, however a glimmer of hope for subjects age 60 and above…Unlike the younger participants, older subjects showed a significant improvement in verbal reasoning, one of the components of the benchmark test, after just six weeks of brain training, so the older subjects continued in a follow-up study for a full 12 months.
Results of this follow-up study, soon to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, generally show that continued brain training helps older subjects maintain the improvement in verbal reasoning seen in the earlier study. This is good news because it suggests that brain exercise might delay some of the effects of aging on the brain.
OF course, skeptics might argue that older people are already on a downward cognitive trajectory, so their improvement with brain games is not actual enhancement so much as a slowing in the decline of mental acumen. Call it what you will, but it still sounds fine to me.
…there is much that you can do to reach your cognitive potential and to keep it. Forget the smart drugs and supplements; put on your shorts and go exercise. If you’re 60 and up, consider brain training. And do it all with your friends.”