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by Meeri Kim for the Washington Post
Playing music, dancing, creating art — and even playing some types of video games — aren’t just immersive and emotionally rewarding. They may actually slow down brain aging, a new study suggests. By analyzing brain activity data, the researchers found that engaging in creative pursuits of all kinds is linked to a younger-looking brain. The study was published by Nature Communications in October.
“This is not just a solution for the da Vincis of the world. Anyone can benefit from having a creative hobby, not just geniuses or professional artists,” said study author Agustín Ibáñez, director of the Latin American Brain Health Institute at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. “We are living in a world full of stress, uncertainty and despair. Creating a little bubble through art or music can have a positive impact on your brain health.”
The researchers analyzed imaging data of brain activity taken from 1,467 healthy participants from around the world, including tango dancers, musicians, visual artists and strategy video game players. To quantify brain aging, they used brain clocks, which are computational models that can estimate the difference between a person’s chronological age and their brain’s biological age
“We use brain connectivity metrics to predict your brain age, and there is a gap between this estimated age and your real age,” Ibáñez said. “This gap is informative for assessing accelerated or delayed brain aging.”
Accelerated aging of the brain, as indicated by a person’s brain appearing older than their actual age, has been observed in some people with psychiatric and neurological conditions. In the current study, Ibáñez and his colleagues wanted to investigate what other factors are associated with delayed brain aging.
The researchers found that all four creative and challenging pursuits they looked at — dance, music, visual art and strategy video games — were associated with delayed brain aging. And greater expertise and performance level seemed to help. Experts with years of practice had younger brains compared with hobbyists. Out of all participants, highly skilled tango dancers seemed to have the most youthful brains — an average of seven years younger than their chronological age.
Tips from experts on nurturing a creative activity:
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