Landmark Seattle Longditudinal Study

 A longitudinal study of 229 subjects over the age of 65, found that over a period of 14 years, half had declined in important cognitive abilities of inductive reasoning (problem solving) and spatial orientation (ability to read a map or solve the assembly of objects. The remaining half remained at the same level of ability when first assessed.

 With those subjects that had remained stable in their cognitive ability over the 14 year period, brain training with specially designed neurocognitive exercises, 50 percent of the subjects significantly increased their reasoning and spatial abilities.

 With those subjects who had declined in their cognitive ability most improved their abilities, and 40 percent of them significantly recovered the intellectual abilities they had demonstrated 14 years earlier.

 Furthermore, all subjects were re-tested some 7 years after the brain training program, and those people  with the largets initial gains from the teraining were still ahead of their originally assessed levels.

 The findings demonstrate how significantly specialized neurocognitive brain training effectively boosts intellectual power, maintains intellectual function, and reverses memory decline and the loss of other intellectual abilities.

 Schaie, K. Warner. 1966. Intellectual development in Adulthood: The Seattle Longditudinal Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.