Overview
- Rush University’s Memory and Aging Project tracked nearly 2,000 dementia‑free older adults and found those with the highest lifetime cognitive enrichment developed Alzheimer’s about five years later with slower decline.
- Among 948 participants who underwent autopsy, people with greater enrichment showed better cognition despite similar Alzheimer’s pathology, consistent with the cognitive reserve concept.
- The ACTIVE randomized trial reported that older adults who completed computerized speed‑of‑processing training plus follow‑up booster sessions were about 25% less likely to have a dementia diagnosis roughly 20 years later.
- Speed training without boosters, as well as memory or reasoning training, did not show a long‑term reduction in dementia risk in the ACTIVE follow‑up.
- Researchers caution that the Rush findings are observational and that the ACTIVE outcomes rely on Medicare claims and may reflect selection effects, underscoring the need for mechanistic studies, imaging and biomarker work, replication, and equity‑focused research.