Mindfulness May Improve Cognition in Older Adults

Summary: Mindfulness and meditation may offer small but significant benefits to cognition, especially in older adults.

Source: Neuropsychology Review.

A systematic review and meta-analysis, led by University College of London has found that, while mindfulness is typically geared towards improving mental health and well-being. It may also provide additional benefits to brain health, particularly among older adults.

The researchers went through previously published studies on mindfulness, and identified 45 studies that fit into their criteria, which included a total of 2,238 study participants. Each study examined the effects of a mindfulness-based involvement delivered by a facilitator in a group setting, over at least four sessions, while excluding mindfulness retreats in order to have a more similar set of studies.

Most of the studies involved a certified instructor teaching participants techniques such as mindful movement, sitting meditation and body scan. This practice was carried on a weekly basis across six to 12 weeks, while also advising participants to continue with the practices in their own time.

The researchers observed that overall, mindfulness yields a small but significant benefit to cognition.

Subgroup analysis revealed that the effect was slightly stronger for people over 60, while there was not any remarkable effect for people under 60.

When they analysed which aspects of cognition were affected, the researchers obseeved that mindfulness was beneficial only to executive function, and more specifically, there was strong evidence of a small positive effect on working memory (which is one feature of executive function).

The researchers also examined whether mindfulness worked better than other ‘active interventions’ (such as brain training, relaxation, or other health or educational programmes) or only when compared to people who were not offered any alternative treatment. The findings revealed that cognitive benefits of mindfulness were only significant compared with an ‘inactive’ comparison, which means it cannot be ruled out that the benefits may also have been partly derived from an expectation of treatment benefits, or social interactions.

Further study is needed to understand which characteristics of mindfulness training may be more likely to produce cognitive benefits, or whether delivering interventions over longer periods, or in intensive retreat settings, might lead to greater cognitive benefits.