Expert opinion about the value of both traditional board games and puzzles, and more tech-driven online games and mental challenges, has gone back and forth. While there’s certainly no harm in engaging in traditional board or online games, whether you can improve your cognition or enhance your memory by playing these games is another matter. But a new study out of McGill University in Canada seems to demonstrate a long-sought connection: According to this research, a 10-week trial of 30-minute daily sessions devoted to challenging mental exercises restored the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in adults 65 and over. That’s a brain chemical that usually declines as you get older and is critical for such mental activities as attention, memory, and decision-making. In essence, the brains of the research participants, after participating in these online mental challenges, resembled those of someone 10 years younger. According to the researchers, “This is the first time any intervention, drug or non-drug, has been shown to do that in humans.” 

The research is exciting on many fronts. First, not only does acetylcholine gradually decline by about 2.5% every decade as you get older, but it also declines precipitously in people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. While the impact of the brain training exercises was not dramatic (producing an increase of about 2.3% of acetylcholine in participants), this was enough to counter the loss from aging and potentially stave off both cognitive decline while improving thinking and memory. This study specifically used the brain challenges from Brain HQ, which are currently available to consumers (and have been researched in over 300 prior studies). The goal with these “games” is to progressively challenge the brain with ever-increasing levels of difficulty, pushing the brain to its limits as it learns new information and tasks, and applies that learning to new challenges. This kind of brain game is different from an online game that you can easily master and repeat for the pure enjoyment of it. There are some limitations to this study, including the question of whether less intensive brain training could achieve similar results and whether a more diverse study population would achieve the same benefits. (Many studies of brain training do not include populations that have limited education or lower socio-economic status.) But this research heralds potentially exciting new opportunities to preserve and even strengthen your cognitive functioning just by exercising your brain the way you might engage in physically strengthening muscles. And the researchers plan to next study this brain training research with participants with mild cognitive impairment to determine its impact on this population. For a list of additional online mental challenge programs beyond Brain HQ, make sure your laptop is charged, and click here.

More generally, game playing can be fun (and there’s no shame in playing for the pure enjoyment), but if you want your game playing to be both for pleasure and for its brain-boosting potential, you need the game to involve several characteristics: You should be actively engaged and find it increasingly challenging (without becoming frustrated or stressed), you should try something new, not something you’ve already mastered, and you should play it consistently, to keep your brain occupied and thinking. But what if your heart is hankering for just a good old game of Monopoly or some other beloved board game? There is evidence to support the brain-enhancing qualities of a board game, but you may also benefit from the social aspects: Finding the opportunity to enjoy yourself while being around others is also an important payoff for your mental health and cognition. So whether it’s bingo or Brain HQ, engaging in a game can be a win-win for you, your body, and your brain.