A recent study published in the journal Neurology suggests that self-reflection—that is, actively evaluating one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior—may reduce the risk of dementia in older adults.
Screenshot of the paper
Harriet Demnitz-King, lead author of the study and a PhD student in psychiatry at UCL, said: “There is growing evidence that positive psychological factors, such as clear life purpose and conscientiousness, can reduce the risk of dementia. The immediate priority is to find ways to further reduce dementia risk, so researchers believe that now that self-reflection can be improved, this approach could be a useful tool to help people maintain cognitive health as they age “Anyone can do self-reflection and try to increase the level of reflection because it doesn’t depend on physical health or socioeconomic factors.”
This study used cross-sectional data from two clinical trials related to the effects of mindfulness meditation on cognitive performance in older adults, Age-Well for cognitively intact older adults and SCD-Well for older adults with cognitive decline people, including a total of 259 participants, with an average age of 69 and 73 years. Participants answered questions about reflective thinking to measure how often they thought and tried to understand their thoughts and feelings.
Participants answered questions about reflective thinking to measure how often they thought and tried to understand their thoughts and feelings | Pixabay
Brain imaging showed that people who practiced self-reflection more frequently had better cognition and improved glucose metabolism, and no Alzheimer’s-related amyloid deposits were found in the brain.
Previous research has shown that self-reflection skills can be improved through a recently tested psychological intervention. The researchers say the approach may be useful for people at risk of dementia.
Harriet explained: “Research has found that self-reflection thinking can make people more flexible to deal with external stress, and there is evidence that this can even be effective in stress-induced inflammation and improved cardiovascular health, and therefore may also reflect self. How the reflection process can improve our ability to adapt and repair cognitive decline.”
Self-reflective thinking can make people more flexible to deal with external pressures | Pixabay
However, the researchers also cautioned that although the findings suggest that self-reflection helps to preserve cognition, it may also be because people with better cognitive abilities are themselves more capable of self-reflection, and more longitudinal studies may be needed. Determine cause and effect.
Lead author Natalie Marchant, PhD, UCL Psychiatry, said: “For dementia, there are currently no disease-modifying treatments available, so it is important to find ways to prevent it; by finding out which factors are more or less likely to cause dementia or Cognitive decline, we may be able to find ways to target these factors and reduce dementia risk.”
“Self-reflection also has other benefits, such as recovery from depression and improved cardiovascular health, so even if we can’t definitively confirm what effect self-reflection might have on cognitive decline, there is other evidence that self-reflection overall is beneficial.”
Dr. Marchant’s previous research has found that repetitive negative thinking may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and that mindfulness may help improve cognitive performance in older adults.
Richard Oakley, PhD, associate director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, commented: “In this study, researchers have shown for the first time that self-reflection — reflecting on one’s own thoughts, feelings and actions — is associated with specific brain regions. Better functional performance, and these brain regions are known to be affected by dementia.”
“While more research is needed to fully understand the implications of this finding, if self-reflection does appear to have a positive effect on brain function, we may one day be able to use psychotherapeutic approaches that help people develop healthy thinking patterns. Reduce the risk of dementia.”
“The number of people living with dementia in the UK will rise to 1.6 million by 2040 – the government’s pledge to double funding for dementia research will ensure researchers can explore ways to reduce the risk of the disease.”
references
[1] Harriet Demnitz-King et al, Association Between Self-Reflection, Cognition, and Brain Health in Cognitively Unimpaired Older Adults, Neurology (2022). DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200951
[2] https://ift.tt/ujXpYLv
Compilation: Oasis
Editor: Jin Xiaoming
Typesetting: Yin Ningliu
Title image source: Pixabay
research team
Corresponding author Natalie L Marchant: Division of Psychiatry, School of Brain Sciences, UCL, UK
Group homepage
https://ift.tt/TCKr03j
First author Harriet Demnitz-King: PhD, Division of Psychiatry, School of Brain Sciences, UCL, UK
Paper information
Publish the journal Neurology
Posted on July 9, 2022
Paper titleAssociation Between Self-Reflection, Cognition, and Brain Health in Cognitively Unimpaired Older Adults
(DOI: https://ift.tt/2Ahy1Ps)
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