Mental stimulation warding off Alzheimer's

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There is no known cure for Alzheimer's, which gradually destroys a person's memory and ability to learn, reason, make judgments, communicate and carry out daily activities.
Researchers at the University of California-Irvine studied hundreds of mice altered to make them develop abnormalities known as plaques and tangles in brain tissue that are considered hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease in people.

Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience, they said periodic learning sessions - swimming in a tub of water until finding a submerged platform to stand on - slowed the development in the mice of those two abnormalities.
The findings are in line with other research, which shows that exercising the mind is important in staving off the degenerative brain disorder, which is the most common form of dementia among the elderly.

Green said the mice in the study were given "a very mild learning experience" - essentially figuring out a maze but in the water - for a week at a time every three months. The sessions were performed four times daily for a week at a time when the mice were aged two, six, nine, 12, 15 and 18 months. The mice performing the task experienced slower development of the protein beta amyloid, which clumps in the brain forming plaque buildup that accumulates outside nerve cells, the study found. These mice also experienced a slower build-up of another protein in the brain, hyperphosphorylated-tau, that can lead to the formation of neurofibrillary tangles - twisted fibres in brain cells.