Study: It’s Never Too Late ­To Strengthen Cognitive Capacity

A three-year study of brain health and performance by researchers in The University of Texas at Dallas' Center for BrainHealth (CBH) suggests that mental acuity does not inevitably diminish with age, and cognitive abilities can improve at any stage of life.

The study, published online May 2 in the Nature research journal Scientific Reports, relies on data gathered from The BrainHealth Project (BHP). This CBH initiative, started in 2020, set out to document how brain health can be strengthened and optimized across the lifespan.

The research team followed 3,966 adults between the ages of 19 and 94 - a subset of about one-fifth of all BHP participants. These participants were asked to spend five to 15 minutes a day during a three-year period on short training activities.

The study assessed participants' brain health and performance using the BrainHealth Index (BHI), a patent-pending tool developed by CBH researchers and first described in a 2021 pilot study. The BHI is highly sensitive to change - both gains and losses - and focuses on three key factors: clarity, emotional balance, and connectedness to people and purpose.

Researchers emphasized that intervention can begin early, before the onset of symptoms or disease, and still yield positive effects even in individuals in their 80s.

"For too long, we've operated under the outdated notion that we need to wait until something bad happens to our brains before we do anything for them," said Sandra Bond Chapman PhD'86, senior author of the study, CBH chief director and Dee Wyly Distinguished University Chair for BrainHealth. "This study reminds us that our brain is not defined by age - it is defined by possibility."

A key finding of the study was that participants with the lowest initial BrainHealth Index showed the largest gains.

"Those who are starting at the lowest level appear to have the most opportunity for growth and may be coming in with more preexisting concerns," Cook said. "As such, they may be more motivated to invest the time needed to see more growth potential. But it is noteworthy that we saw measurable growth even in those entering as high performers."

The researchers also found that the most significant determinant of improvement was the level of engagement; positive change was not dependent on demographics such as age, gender or education level. Cook noted, however, that the study sample was limited, and participants were largely white, majority female and generally college educated.

"We have room to grow when it comes to representation for different demographic groups," she said. "We're working hard to increase representation, so we can be even more confident in how this generalizes to the population at large, especially communities typically underrepresented in research."

Cook, who has collaborated with Chapman for more than 25 years since starting as a research assistant, said she appreciates CBH's position at the intersection of clinical research, translational care and community outreach. She believes effective communication about research is critical to achieving meaningful societal impact.

"One piece that is so near and dear to my heart is helping people link neuroplasticity with self-agency," she said. "Brain health isn't just something we strive to maintain; we can actively shape it over time. Research like ours, which provides an objective measure of brain health that people can track over time, can only further boost public awareness."

Longitudinal research continues through The BrainHealth Project and related substudies. For instance, about 400 Dallas-area BHP participants have collectively had more than 1,200 brain scans at the Sammons BrainHealth Imaging Center.

"This unique imaging dataset provides an opportunity to look at neural metrics associated with the BHI and gives us the capacity to use periodic brain imaging to explore potential brain mechanisms associated with changes in brain health over time," Cook said.

Additional authors of the most recent study currently affiliated with CBH include medical science research director Dr. Jane Wigginton, who is also co-director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center and chief medical officer of the Texas Biomedical Device Center; Dr. Jeffrey Spence, director of biostatistics; Aaron Tate MA'18, director of emerging technology; Erin Venza MS'13, PhD'25 head of clinical operations; and Zhengsi Chang PhD'22, research scientist. Additional contributors were from the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience in Dublin; University of California, Berkeley; and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The BrainHealth Project is funded in part by private philanthropy, including Sammons Enterprises Inc.