Will brain training data change policy when it comes to Alzheimer’s prevention? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Cognitive speed training using a computer to generate images and accelerate task completion was able to reduce the likelihood that an older person would receive an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis by 25%, a study by Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s expert Marilyn Albert and colleagues has shown. Albert says this may be the data federal agencies have been looking for to move prevention efforts forward.

Albert: In 2017 the national academies came out with a report on the basis of having looked at lots of randomized controlled trials related to lifestyle factors. In that report they said that the best evidence was for cognitive training, second was physical activity and 3rd was control of high blood pressure in people of hypertension. But they said we can't really make a very aggressive campaign to the general public on the basis of these data. We need better data than what we have now. These findings are going to make a big difference.   :33

The study followed participants for twenty years. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.