By Karla Merola, LPTA, CLT
My father-in-law loved puzzles. I have fond memories of him sitting at the kitchen table working away on the daily crossword puzzle. Every now and then he would get stuck and ask my help. I usually had no clue, but occasionally, the synapses would fire just right, and I would get an answer correct- a great “a-ha!” moment that really did feel like it woke up my brain. I have no doubt that his daily battle with the Post puzzle is what helped his mind stay so fit throughout his life.
Medical professionals and research seem to support this belief. “Crosswords draw upon written language production and reading comprehension, including lexical, grammatical, and spelling skills” (Skotko et al. 2008) . As a result, the repetitive training through use of crossword puzzles appears to help maintain word retrieval skills. In her article in Psychology of Aging, E. J. Meinz, found evidence to support the use of crossword puzzles to slow down the deterioration of memory and perceptual speed tasks that comes with aging.
Crosswords are not the only option to maintain a healthy brain. According to Patrick Fissler et al in their article “Jigsaw Puzzling Taps Multiple Cognitive Abilities and Is a Potential Protective Factor for Cognitive Aging, “…jigsaw puzzling recruits multiple visuospatial cognitive abilities and is a – not necessarily causal – protective factor for visuospatial cognitive aging” (Fissler et al. 2018).
Similar support has been seen for the routine completion of word search, word scrambles, riddles, and sudoku which activate parts of the brain in various ways and therefore keep it healthy. Completion of brain-training puzzles may even slow down the progression of dementia. Per Dr. Doug Brown, Director of Research of Alzheimer’s Society, “keeping an active mind can help to reduce decline in thinking skills” (University of Exeter. 2017).
My advice: Use it so you don’t lose it. To support the cognitive health of our clients and readers we have created a puzzle to help you on your journey towards maintaining a healthy active mind. Subscribe to our newsletter and get a Mighty Minds puzzle every month. Click on the link below to find the August puzzle! Need a hint? Clues can be found in last months blogs.
Fissler, P., Kuster, O. C., Laptinskaya, D., Loy, L.S., von Amim, A. F., Kolassa, I. T. Jigsaw Puzzling Taps Multiple Cognitive Abilities and Is a Potential Protective Factor for Cognitive Aging. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 2018 Oct 1;10:299. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00299. eCollection 2018.
Meinz, E. J. Experience-Based Attenuation of Age- Related Differences in Music Cognition Tasks. Psychology of Aging. 2000 Volume 15 (2), 297-312.
Skotko, B., Rubin, D.C., Tupler, L.A. H.M.’s Personal Crossword Puzzles: Understanding Memory and Language. Memory. 2008 Feb; 16(2): 89–96.
University of Exeter. Daily crosswords linked to sharper brain in later life 2017. https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/fearurednews/title_595009_en.html
Check out August’s Mighty Minds puzzle.