A Simple Change To Your Commute Could Boost Your Brain, Says Dementia Charity

According to neurologist Dr Richard Restak’s book How To Prevent Dementia, “Cognitive reserve theory refers to the representation stored within the brain of the knowledge, experience, and life events that accumulate during the course of a person’s lifetime”. 

The more “cognitive reserve” we have, he explained, the better we might be protected against conditions like dementia. “A lifetime investment in building up cognitive reserve leads to healthy cognition and thinking later in life,” he wrote. 

Dr Restak called reading fiction “perhaps the single most effective” way to build this up.

But Alzheimer’s Research UK, who have launched a Think Brain Health campaign this year, are releasing brain teasers to help us build up our reserves, which they say can be done in quiet moments like during your commut. 

After all, research suggests that puzzles like crosswords may help to strengthen our minds as we age, too.

Challenging our brains is good for us – but may be falling out of style 

Alzheimer’s UK found that only 30% of UK adults do “brain-teasing” activities like soduko and crosswords, while 32% say they do them less often now than they did a year ago. 

And even though 71% of us have free time on public transport, 68% of us use that period to scroll through our phones or watch shows, they wrote. 

So, the foundation has created a brain teaser to help people fill gaps like those in their schedule. They began by launching an image which hides 40 train station names, created with artist Chris Bishop. 

“Research suggests that there are steps we can all take to protect our brain health and build our cognitive reserve, making our brains more resilient no matter what age we start,” Dr Jacqui Hanley, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said.

“If someone with a high cognitive reserve develops dementia, studies have found that they typically experience Alzheimer’s symptoms around five years later than those who don’t regularly challenge their brains.

“It’s never too early to make positive lifestyle changes, and this brain-teasing puzzle is a great way to introduce brain challenges into your daily routine”. 

How many train station names can you find in this image? 

For their first brain teaser, Alzheimer’s Research UK shared an image created with artist Chris Bishop and released with support from Great Western Railway.

It contains 40 hidden train station names in the UK. And if, like me, you find the image truly challenging, Alzheimer’s UK said, “This puzzle has been designed to help you challenge your brain, so don’t worry if you didn’t find them all”.

After all, Dan Panes, Head of External Communications at Great Western Railway, said, “This puzzle had some of our colleagues scratching their heads!”