HealthDay News,
10
August
2016
|
15:00 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

Busy Lifestyles and Brain Function

If your day is jam-packed with things to do, your brain may actually benefit!

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HealthDay Busy Lifestyles

Video transcript: 
If your to-do list is never ending and your days are non-stop, we’ve got some good news. In a new study, adults with a busy lifestyle had better brain function and stronger memory.

Researchers surveyed 330 healthy men and women about their daily schedule, then put them through a series of tests to measure their cognitive performance. All of the participants were between 50 and 89 years old.

A busier lifestyle was associated with superior processing speed of the brain, better working memory, and better reasoning...at any age.

The authors say one explanation may be that busy people are likely to have more opportunities to learn …and encounter a wider range of situations in daily life. The lead author says, “Living a busy lifestyle appears beneficial for mental function,” although more research is needed to directly relate the two.