BRAIN ACADEMY – COGNITIVE EXERCISES FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE)

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.1594232422025

• Palavras-chave: aging, elderly, cognitive exercises

• Keywords: aging, elderly, cognitive exercises

• Abstract:

  In recent years, Brazil has become a country with a large number of elderly people, which has led to the need to promote healthy habits for active and healthy aging and maintenance of cognitive functions. In this sense, we created the Brain Academy extension action in 2015, which seeks to develop actions to improve cognitive impairment and dementia in the elderly population. Many studies have shown positive effects of cognitive exercise in delaying or preventing these conditions. Brain gym exercises include motor skills activities, crossword puzzles, logical reasoning and physical exercises that involve movements of the head, eyes and crossing of extremities to stimulate both cerebral hemispheres. In this study we evaluated the effect of 12 weeks of brain gym exercises on cognitive function in elderly people. The study involved 64 elderly people of both sexes. The elderly participated in 50-minute brain gymnastics sessions once a week and received a notebook to develop cognitive activities at home, with a time stamp. The results were measured by the time spent performing the exercise at home and cognitive function was assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) questionnaire. The results were evaluated at baseline and after the intervention. Logical reasoning time increased by 34% of elderly participants, with the MMSE score being significant for the study population. We found that the Brain Academy exercise sessions significantly increase cognitive reasoning and perception in the elderly. With this work, it is possible to suggest that brain gym exercises are a great strategy to help control and activate cognitive abilities, as well as being a preventive factor in the deceleration of neurocognitive diseases.