Crosswords could knock 10 years off brain and delay dementia Participants were split into four groups: some received brain training focusing on processing speed, others on memory and others on reasoning ability. A fourth group did not get any brain training. All four groups were given 10 sessions lasting 60 to 70 minutes over five or six weeks and nothing else for the next decade. The effects were measured at intervals over the next 10 years. The findings showed that around 60 per cent of those who participated in the brain drills reported they had less difficulty with day-to-day activities such as shopping and handling their finances, compared to 49 per cent of those who did not have the training. George Rebok, an expert on aging and a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and lead author, said: "What we found was pretty astounding. Ten years after the training, there was evidence the effects were durable for the reasoning and the speed training. Study co-author Sharon Tennstedt, vice president of New England Research Institutes, said: "If these training interventions can have that kind of effect on preserving cognitive function, then there is potential for either delaying dementia or kind of attenuating it." Some 500,000 people in the UK are affected by Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia. Previous research has found a lower risk of Alzheimer's among people who frequently go to the theater, read or play games such as cards. Going to a museum, dancing and playing a musical instrument had a positive effect, as did regular social interaction. The latest study appeared appears in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society .