Play Chess to Keep Brain Fit: New Study by Radiological Society of North America

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Hi everyone,

The old ‘use it or lose it’ adage may well hold some credence according to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Researchers from Rush University Medical Center and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, who studied the effect of late-life cognitive activity on the brain’s white matter, have concluded that reading newspapers, writing letters and playing games like chess, do contribute to a healthier brain.

The researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to generate data on diffusion anisotropy, a measure of how water molecules move through the brain. In white matter, diffusion anisotropy exploits the fact that water moves more easily in a direction parallel to the brain's axons, and less easily perpendicular to the axons, because it is impeded by structures such as axonal membranes and myelin.

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