A lon­gi­tu­di­nal study of health and men­tal lucid­ity in the aged—focusing on the huge retire­ment com­mu­nity of Laguna Woods Vil­lage south of Los Angeles—is start­ing to show some results.

From study­ing mem­bers of the so-called ‘super mem­ory club’ (peo­ple aged 90+ with near-perfect cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties) it is being sug­gested that not all men­tal activ­i­ties are equal when it comes to staving off demen­tia, and social intere­ac­tions may be vastly more impor­tant that pre­vi­ously thought.

The researchers have also demon­strated that the per­cent­age of peo­ple with demen­tia after 90 does not plateau or taper off, as some experts had sus­pected. It con­tin­ues to increase, so that for the one in 600 peo­ple who make it to 95, nearly 40 per­cent of the men and 60 per­cent of the women qual­ify for a diag­no­sis of dementia.

So far, sci­en­tists here have found lit­tle evi­dence that diet or exer­cise affects the risk of demen­tia in peo­ple over 90. But some researchers argue that men­tal engage­ment — doing cross­word puz­zles, read­ing books — may delay the arrival of symp­toms. And social con­nec­tions, includ­ing inter­ac­tion with friends, may be very impor­tant, some sus­pect. In iso­la­tion, a healthy human mind can go blank and quickly become disoriented.

via Mind Hacks