Speed-Training Game Raised Beta-Amyloid Ratio in Older Men but Showed No Effect in Women

A cognitive speed-training game increased the ratio of two forms of beta-amyloid in the blood of older men, New Scientist reported. The change suggests the training improved the brain’s clearance of beta-amyloid 42, a protein that forms plaques linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Hye Won Chai of Clemson University presented the findings on 12 July at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London.

Her team recruited 53 U.S. participants aged 65 and older, 13 of them men. Roughly one-third completed two to four hours of speed training each week for 4.5 months. The remaining participants spent the same time playing games such as Solitaire, word search, or a Connect 4-style game, or performed another form of brain training that required tracking objects and switching tasks.

Blood samples taken at the start and end of the period showed the beta-amyloid shift only in men who did the speed training. A separate 20-year study had previously found that people aged 65 and older who performed the same speed training were 25 percent less likely to receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia than a control group.

The other training regimens in the new study produced no change in beta-amyloid levels.

Cognitive training had no measurable effect on amyloid levels among the female participants. Chai said the results indicate that speed training may reduce dementia risk through different mechanisms in men and women. Sasha Novozhilova of McGill University called the finding a strengthening of earlier evidence that the training lowers dementia incidence.