1. Spatial navigation
One strategy to protect against age-related cognitive decline is to target a specific part of the brain. The brain area important for spatial navigation, the hippocampus, is believed to be the first part of the brain affected in Alzheimer’s disease, several years before symptoms start to show.
“For years we’ve known that people with Alzheimer’s often get lost as an initial symptom,” says neurologist Dennis Chan from University College London, UK, who specialises in early Alzheimer’s detection. And early detection is crucial, he says. “The earlier we identify [cognitive impairments] the faster we can do something about it.”
Protecting this brain area could therefore help prevent or delay symptoms. For instance, studies show that ambulance and taxi drivers have among the lowest rates of Alzheimer’s-related mortality compared with other roles, precisely because these drivers had been using their brain more for “spatial processing”, the researchers propose. It’s also long been known that taxi drivers who had spent years learning the city’s streets without the use of a map, have an enlarged hippocampus.
We can all work at enhancing our spatial skills, with sports like orienteering or, in children, playing with building blocks
Similarly, one study of healthy men who performed a spatial navigation task for four months showed improved navigational skills and no loss of hippocampal volume, whereas the control participants (those who did not perform the task) did experience expected age-related shrinkage.
READ MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE..
