Study: Playing board games like Chess, Mahjong, Go, helps slow cognitive decline as we age (but with clear differences in neurobiology and function)

Play ing Board Games May Slow Cog ni tive Decline, Improve QoL (Med scape):

Play ing chess or oth er board games slows cog ni tive decline and improves qual i ty of life in old er patients, results of a new sys tem at ic review suggest.

… After search ing the pub lished lit er a ture, Pozzi and his col leagues select ed 15 stud ies for the review. The stud ies ،essed the impact of board games on old er indi vid u als at risk of, or with cog ni tive impair ment, or t،se with mild cog ni tive impair ment (MCI) at any\xa0age.

… Play ing Go was linked with improved work ing mem o ry, as mea sured by the Trail Mak ing Test‑A. T،se w، played Mahjong report ed improved exec u tive func tion ing and a tem po rary decrease in depres sive symp toms. And chess play ers report ed improved qual i ty of life on the World Health Orga ni za tion Qual i ty of Life scale from play ing chess (P < .00001).

… The results also seemed to sug gest that Go and chess have dif fer ent bio log i cal effects. “For exam ple, Go increased [،in-derived neu rotroph ic fac tor] (BDNF) lev els and metab o lism in areas key for cog ni tion like the mid dle tem po ral gyrus,” Pozzi\xa0said.

The Study:

Can Tra di tion al Board Games Pre vent or Slow Down Cog ni tive Impair ment? A Sys tem at ic Review and Meta-Analy sis (Jour nal of Alzheimer’s Dis ease). From the\xa0Abstract:

• Back ground: Tra di tion al board games can entail sig nif i cant s،s encom p، ing sev er al cog ni tive func tions across dif fer ent domains. There fore, they may ،en tial ly rep re sent effec tive cog ni tive inter ven tions in the aging pop u la tion with or with out Alzheimer’s dis ease or oth er types of dementia.
• Objec tive: We aimed at ver i fy ing the hy،h e sis that tra di tion al board games can pre vent or slow down cog ni tive decline, through a sys tem at ic review on tra di tion al board games and dementia.
• Results: Board games improved men tal func tion, as mea sured by Mon tre al Cog ni tive Assess ment (p = 0.003) and Mini-Men tal State Exam i na tion (p = 0.02). Ska and Go improved Trail Mak ing Test ‑A, while Mahjong improved exec u tive func tions. There was no con sis tent effect across dif fer ent games on Dig it Span or Cat e gor i cal Flu en cy. Chess improved qual i ty of life mea sured with the WHO-QoL-OLD scale (p < 0.00001). Mahjong tem porar i ly improved depres sive symp toms. Go increased BDNF lev els and left mid dle tem po ral gyrus and bilat er al puta men metabolism.
• Con clu sions: Tra di tion al board games may slow glob al cog ni tive decline and improve the qual i ty of life in elder ly sub jects. Dif fer ent games have vary ing impacts on spe cif ic cog ni tive domains, pos si bly medi at ed by func tion al and bio log i cal factors.

The Study in Context: