Study Finds Creative Hobbies Preserve Brain Youth in Older Adults
Engaging in creative activities like music, art, dance, and strategy video games helps older adults maintain brain health and reduce biological aging effects.
A large-scale international study revealed that creative hobbies—including music, drawing, dancing, and even some strategy video games—can help older adults keep their brains biologically "younger."
Study Details
Researchers from 13 countries, including Trinity College Dublin and SWPS University in Poland, analyzed brain data from over 1,400 adults worldwide. They found that regular engagement in creative hobbies results in brain patterns that appear younger than chronological age.
Activities ranged from expert tango dancers, musicians, and visual artists to beginners practicing strategy games like StarCraft 2. Beginners also participated to observe short-term effects on the brain over a few weeks.
Advanced techniques such as EEG and MEG scans were used, and data were analyzed through machine-learning-based “brain age” models to estimate the biological age of the brain compared to chronological age.
Study Findings
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Creative hobbies strengthen brain networks responsible for coordination, attention, movement, and problem-solving, which usually decline with age.
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Long-term practitioners showed the greatest reduction in brain age, while beginners experienced improvements after roughly 30 hours of strategic game training.
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This study is the first large-scale evidence linking multiple creative activities directly to slower brain aging, in addition to enhancing mood and well-being.
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