A variety of high-tech cognitive exercises are available through paid programs like Lumosity. Such programs offer digital-based brain exercises for most ages and abilities.
However, there are also relatively low-tech, low-cost, effective options for cognitive enhancement that are accessible to most people with some ingenuity and effort. Harvard Medical School has outlined several of these (Godman, 2021), including:
1. Learn a new language
This can help with mental agility and may be neuroprotective, as a new language creates new connections between neurons, making them more resistant to disease (Kroll, Dussias, Bice, & Perrotti, 2015).
2. Listen to or make music
Music activates multiple brain areas, including those that process emotions, memory, and movement (Wan & Schlaug, 2010). There are many free online websites for listening to and learning music.
3. Cards, board games and electronic games
Card games are a cheap and fun way to practice memory and strategy skills. Board games like Trivial Pursuit improve memory, while games like Monopoly develop math, finance, and strategy skills. Strategy and 3D adventure video games have been shown to have significant benefits for attention, short-term memory, and reaction time (Brilliant T, Nouchi, & Kawashima, 2019).
4. Travel
Whether it is a destination near or far, travel exposes us to new sights, sounds, and experiences that create new connections between neurons, including so-called “place cells” in the brain’s memory circuits (Eichenbaum, Dudchenko, Wood, Shapiro, & Tanila,1999).
5. Cultural activities
Watch movies, plays, go to poetry readings, go on museum tours, etc. The newer and more unusual your chosen pastimes are (such as watching a foreign film, visiting a new museum, or discovering the works of a poet you haven’t read before), the more challenging and stimulating they are for your brain, and the more new connections you make between neurons (Park & Huang, 2010). Culture can rewire and rewire the brain. This process continues throughout our lives.
6. Puzzles
Puzzles are designed to challenge the brain. Brain teasers rely on the brain's natural tendencies to detect patterns, complete sequences, and solve problems (Fissler et al., 2018).
Maintaining cognitive fitness in older age
The supportive exercises and games suggested above continue to be valid for maintaining cognitive fitness as we age, with some limitations.
Just as with any other population, it is crucial to find a challenge for older adults that is “just right” to stimulate the individual’s abilities but not overwhelm them (Proffitt, 2016).
For example, a verbal memory task for an elderly person with severe memory problems could be modified to include a 6-item list of words to be recalled instead of a 12-item list. Prompts and cues can stimulate memory and provide the individual with a sense of accomplishment.
If a cognitive task is too easy, it will not serve to enhance a person’s abilities. If it is too hard, there is a risk of overloading the person. This is especially true for people with severe Alzheimer’s disease, the most common dementia condition in the elderly (Desai and Grossberg, 2001).
Finding the right cognitive challenge for such individuals allows them to practice their skills and experience some success, rather than becoming overwhelmed and frustrated.
Source: https://positivepsychology.com/how-to-improve-cognitive-function
