Tutoring children as part of a volunteer service program helped older women delay or reverse declining brain function, according to a new study that suggests aging brains benefit from mentally stimulating social activities.
Older women who participated in a volunteer service program called Experience Corps saw significant increases after six months in brain activity in regions important to cognitive function, including the the anterior cingulate cortex (P<0.003), left dorsal prefrontal cortex (P<0.04), and left ventral prefrontal cortex (P<0.01), researchers reported in the December Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
"Individuals exhibited use-dependent neural plasticity by exercising and reactivating skills that may have been relatively unused for years or even decades," Michelle C. Carlson, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote.
"This finding is best captured by a personal observation from one of the volunteers, who stated that 'it [Experience Corps] removed the cobwebs from my brain.'"
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