Facebook pixel
Go to home page
Go to home page

Brain Health Fitness: Beyond Retirement

Senior man reading with a magnifying glass

Educational Gerontology

Raksha Anand, Sandra B. Chapman, Audette Rackley and Jennifer Zientz

Read full research article

Overview

Brain Health Fitness: Beyond Retirement outlines three major challenges related to maintaining and enhancing brain health in seniors:
  • defining the concept of brain health in seniors
  • discussing gist reasoning as a metric of brain health fitness and as a construct of brain health training
  • proposing the incorporation of gist reasoning into everyday complex tasks, both in work and leisure to improve chances for maintaining brain health fitness beyond retirement.
Brain performance and overall health rely on the “use it or lose it” notion. Engagement in cognitively challenging activities during the early, middle, and pre-retirement years is important, but the key to maintaining a healthy brain lies in continued involvement. Having a healthy brain includes not only improved performance. Though further studies are needed to determine more concretely how effective cognitive training is at staving off neural degeneration, initial studies have produced promising results.

Share this article

Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD

Chief Director Dee Wyly Distinguished Professor, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences Co-Leader, The BrainHealth Project

Audette Rackley, MS, CCC-SLP

Director, Strength-Based Programs Research Clinician

Related Information

Alzheimer’s Discovery Program

A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or other dementia can be overwhelming. Reframe the diagnosis as an opportunity to form an action-oriented plan for the future. Families can enrich their lives using a strength-based approach.