Reading, Writing and Playing Games May Help Aging Brains Stay Healthy, Rush University Medical Center and Illinois Institute of Technology Study

Mental activities like reading and writing can preserve structural integrity in the brains of older people, according to a new study presented November 25 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). While previous research has shown an association between late-life cognitive activity and better mental acuity, the new study from Konstantinos Arfanakis, Ph.D., and colleagues from Rush University Medical Center and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago studied what effect late-life cognitive activity might have on the brain's white matter, which is composed of nerve fibers, or axons, that transmit information throughout the brain.