- As we age, we experience changes in our cognitive skills, with processing speed and working memory declining gradually throughout adulthood. But could being expert in a hobby or field of study help to slow the rate of that decline?
- A new study, in expert birders, suggests that it might. The study found that in these experts, regions of the brain related to attention and perception remain more structurally compact than in nonexpert controls.
- Researchers suggest that hobbies involving perception, attention and memory could help preserve cognitive skills as we age.
Research suggests that continuing to learn throughout your lifetime, and particularly as you age, can help keep the mind sharper, and protect against neurodegeneration.
Now a study suggests that being expert in a hobby that uses perception, attention and memory could also be effective at preserving cognitive skills.
The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, found that experts in bird identification had structural modifications in regions of the brain involved in attention and perception. The researchers suggest that these changes could mitigate age-related cognitive decline.
Emer MacSweeney, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, consultant neuroradiologist and CEO and Consultant Neuroradiologist at Re:Cognition Health, who was not involved in this research, told Medical News Today that:
“This study provides intriguing evidence that high-level skill acquisition — expert birdwatching in this case — is associated with measurable structural differences in the brain, particularly in regions involved in attention and perception. […] These changes were linked not just to better performance on domain-specific tasks like bird identification but also to broader cognitive benefits such as enhanced memory for arbitrary information when linked to existing knowledge.”
Team Health Accessible
Health & Wellness Editorial Team
HealthAccessible editorial team delivers trusted, accessible, and evidence-based health information for everyone.
