Living a busy lifestyle is very common in modern day societies and could result, in some cases, in negative outcomes such as stress, anxiety, complaints and negative physical symptoms for a person’s health.
Nonetheless, a recent investigation held by the University of Texas Center for Vital Longevity has encountered positive outcomes for the human cognitive levels because of a hipper and busy lifestyle.
Sara Festini is the lead author of the investigation published in this week’s Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience Journal, Festini along with fellow colleagues sought to understand how a busy lifestyle can reflect in the human brain.
“There hasn’t been much scientific research on the business itself, although it’s something that we talk about so often. So we wanted to look at the relationship of a generally very busy lifestyle to cognition,” said Festini in the recently published study.
The preliminary outcomes of the study have shown that older American subjects who lead a more occupied lifestyle are found better when tested in subjects such as brain processing speed, reasoning vocabulary and other factors such as episodic memory.
A question emerged when analyzing results from surveys and tests, investigators wondered whether the results mean that a busy schedule makes cognitive levels better, or if people with higher cognitive levels try to keep themselves occupied.
A total of 330 women and men participated in the investigation, the ages of the subjects varied from 50 to 89 years old and where a part of the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study project.
Participants were submitted into different surveys in which they were asked about their daily schedule, how many things do they managed on a day-to-day basis, among others.
After the first stage of the evaluation, investigators performed several tests on the subjects while performing cognitive tests that searched for processing speed, working memory, episodic long-term memory, reasoning and crystallized knowledge.
All subjects belonged to different demographics, ethnicity and had different education levels, socioeconomic status, and health values.
When evaluating the results from both stages of testing, investigators found a correlation between having a hectic scheduled and better brain cognition. Another finding showed that age of the subjects did not affect cognition levels on busy subjects.
“We think it’s informative that we see similar relationships between busyness and cognition throughout middle age and older adulthood. You might expect to see larger differences in older age when there’s more chance going on cognition, yet relation was consistent,” said Festini on the study.
This investigation opens the door for further investigations on the subject that could explain the origins of this correlation between busyness and high cognitive levels to ensure a healthy lifestyle.
Source: Frontiers