- Past research shows that engaging in creative activities can help keep your brain healthy as you age.
- A new study has found that not only can creative pursuits help with brain health, they may also help delay brain aging.
- Researchers discovered that those with long-term involvement in creative activities have a more ‘youthful’ brain age on average.
“As populations age, more and more people live long enough to experience cognitive decline and dementia, which are very costly not only for health systems but also for families and caregivers,” Aneta Brzezicka, PhD, psychologist and head of the Center for Neurocognitive Research at SWPS University in Poland, told Medical News Today.
“If we can identify everyday activities that help the brain stay ‘younger’ for longer, we may be able to delay the onset of problems with memory, attention, and independence, and improve quality of life in older age,” Brzezicka noted.
For this study, researchers analyzed health data, including neuroimaging, from more than 1,400 participants from 13 countries.
Within the participant group, some were considered experts in dancing the tango, musicians, visual artists, and action video game players.
“Creative and artistic activities — such as dancing, making music, drawing, or even playing complex strategy video games — naturally combine many ingredients that are beneficial for the brain: They are cognitively demanding, emotionally engaging, often social, and they require fine motor coordination,” Brzezicka explained.
“There has been a lot of interest in the arts and creativity as tools to promote well-being, but we still know very little about whether they are linked to slower biological aging of the brain itself,” she added.
Scientists also utilized computational models called “
“A brain clock is a mathematical model, an algorithm, that learns how brain activity typically changes with age, and then uses this knowledge to estimate how old a new brain looks,” Brzezicka detailed. “In our case, we trained the clock on EEG (electroencephalogram) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) recordings from more than 1,200 people aged 17 to 91 from different countries.”
“When we feed a new person’s brain electrical activity into this model, it gives us a predicted ‘brain age’,” she continued.
“If this predicted age is higher than their actual age, it suggests accelerated brain aging; if it is lower, it suggests their brain is aging more slowly. The difference between predicted and real age is what we call the ‘brain age gap’,” said Brzezicka.
At the study’s conclusion, researchers found that people who participated in creative activities tended to have a younger brain age. And the youngest brain ages were seen in participants who had spent years developing their skills in a particular activity.
“Across all four domains — tango dancing, music, visual arts, and strategy video games — experts had brain-activity patterns that the algorithm judged to be on average about 4 to 7 years ‘younger’ than well-matched non-experts of the same age, sex, and education. This effect was seen in brain networks that are vulnerable to aging, especially fronto-parietal regions involved in attention, coordination, and complex decision-making.”
– Aneta Brzezicka, PhD
“We observed it not only in long-term experts in tango, music, and visual arts, but also in the group involved in our video-game training study, where participants were taught to play a complex strategy game,” Brzezicka told us.
“The significance is that very different forms of creativity seem to converge on a similar brain benefit. Of course, our study is correlational, so we cannot yet say that creative activity causes slower brain aging, but the pattern is robust and consistent across domains,” she added.
Additionally, scientists discovered that study participants who only engaged in several weeks of target training for about 30 hours in total still provided measurable changes in brain-age indicators.
“In a training study, people with little previous gaming experience completed about 30 hours of StarCraft II practice,” Brzezicka explained. “After training, their brain-age estimates shifted by roughly three years in the ‘younger’ direction, and they also improved both in-game performance and on an attention task, whereas an active control group did not show such changes.”
“This tells us two important things,” she continued. “First, that the adult brain remains highly plastic and can show measurable changes over a relatively short period of intensive training.“
“And second, that brain clocks are sensitive enough to pick up these changes,“ said Brzezicka. “The sample was modest, so we need larger trials, but it suggests that you do not need to be a lifelong expert to potentially gain some brain-health benefits.”
MNT had the opportunity to speak with Raphael Wald, PsyD, a neuropsychologist at the Marcus Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, about this study.
“The results of this study reinforce our understanding of the importance of keeping our minds active across a range of activities,” Wald, who was not involved in this research, commented.
“Many people equate intelligence with math and writing, but creativity is a crucial component. Creativity forces us to think abstractly. While math and fact-based knowledge often have one correct response, creative pursuits help push us to forge new ways of thinking,” he noted.
MNT also spoke with Megan Glenn, PsyD, clinical neuropsychologist in Center for Memory and Healthy Aging at Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in New Jersey, likewise not involved in the study.
Glenn commented that her first reaction was feeling intrigued that long-term creative expertise showed such a strong brain-protective effect, which contrasts with the common advice to simply learn any new skill.
“The study’s focus on younger participants is a crucial insight; it suggests these benefits are not just for older adults but are about building brain resilience and a ‘cognitive reserve’ early in life,” Glenn continued. “This highlights a powerful, proactive strategy for public health, emphasizing that cultivating creative passions can be a long-term investment in preventing accelerated brain aging.”
For those who may want to start participating in some creative pursuits, Glenn suggested first focusing on what genuinely brings them joy or sparks curiosity, as we are far more likely to stick with an activity we love.
“Explore local resources like community centers, libraries, and online groups for classes or clubs in areas like music, dance, or art,” she suggested. “The key is to start small and choose an activity that feels like play, not a chore, to ensure it becomes a sustainable and rewarding part of your life.”
And Wald reminded readers that you do not have to be an expert at an artistic pursuit to benefit from it cognitively.
“If all you can do is fingerpaint, then that is great!” he added. “It’s not in the level of skill, it’s in the trying.”
