Study tracks brain-health gains among adults up to 94
UT Dallas researchers found gains over three years in adults who completed brief daily brain-training activities, with engagement tied to improvement.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
Adults as old as 94 showed measurable improvements in brain-health measures during a three-year study by researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, challenge the assumption that cognitive health must decline steadily with age, according to the research team.
The study used data from the BrainHealth Project, a Center for BrainHealth initiative launched in 2020 to study ways people may strengthen brain health across adulthood. Researchers followed 3,966 adults ages 19 to 94, a group that represented about one-fifth of BrainHealth Project participants, according to the university.
Participants completed short training activities that took five to 15 minutes a day. Over the study period, researchers reported gains across measures tied to thinking clarity, emotional balance and a sense of connection to other people and purpose.
The team assessed change using the BrainHealth Index, a patent-pending tool developed by Center for BrainHealth researchers and introduced in a 2021 pilot study. The index is designed to register both gains and declines by comparing a participant’s later results with that person’s earlier scores.
Lori Cook, the center’s director of clinical research and corresponding author of the study, said the index combines about 20 measures. Those include established tools such as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, along with Center for BrainHealth tasks focused on complex thinking skills, according to the university.
Researchers said improvement appeared across age groups, including among participants in their 80s. Cook said the results point to growth potential in individual brains and argue against treating cognitive decline as an unavoidable feature of aging.
The strongest improvements appeared among people who entered the study with the lowest BrainHealth Index scores, according to the researchers. Cook said those participants may have had more room to improve and may also have had more concerns that motivated them to stick with the activities. The team also reported measurable gains among participants who began the study with high scores.
Engagement was the clearest predictor of improvement, the researchers found. Age, gender and education level did not determine whether participants improved, according to the study summary released by the university.
The researchers also noted limits in the study group. Cook said most participants were white, female and college educated, and the Center for BrainHealth is working to increase representation from groups that have often been underrepresented in research.
Sandra Bond Chapman, senior author of the study and chief director of the Center for BrainHealth, said the findings support earlier attention to brain health rather than waiting for symptoms or disease. The university said the BrainHealth Project continues to collect long-term data through follow-up work.
About 400 participants from the Dallas area have also undergone more than 1,200 brain scans at the Sammons BrainHealth Imaging Center, according to the university. Cook said that imaging data will allow researchers to study brain measures linked to BrainHealth Index changes over time.
Additional authors affiliated with the Center for BrainHealth include Jane Wigginton, Jeffrey Spence, Aaron Tate, Erin Venza and Zhengsi Chang. Contributors also came from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience in Dublin, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The BrainHealth Project receives support in part from private philanthropy, including Sammons Enterprises Inc., according to the university.
This story draws on original reporting from ScienceDaily.