Which leisure activities can help memory in MS?

Background

About half of all people with MS have problems at some time with aspects of thinking (cognition) such as memory, concentration or problem solving. Memory difficulties can have a big impact on daily life. In MS memory problems are often related to the recall of recent events or information and forgetting to carry out planned actions in the future.

The brain can be very flexible and can sometimes compensate for a difficulty or damage in one area by rerouting messages and finding an alternative way around, a process called plasticity. The potential ability to adapt or be resilient to damage is related to the amount of brain reserve or cognitive reserve, that is to say the brain may have extra capacity in reserve that can be used when you need it. Previous research in a variety of people has found that mentally stimulating activities can make the brain more resilient and able to compensate for longer. People often refer to ‘brain training’, ‘keeping the mind active’ or ‘use it or you lose it’ when referring to the ability to build up the levels of the brains reserve and keep it healthy.

This study examined which leisure activities were related to better memory to see if the researchers could identify activities which could build reserve in people with MS.

How this study was carried out

242 people with MS in Italy and the United States took part in the study. To take part participants had to be aged 25 or over and not had a relapse or steroid treatment for at least four weeks.

Participants were asked about the leisure activities they had participated in since their early 20’s. These were:

1.Read books
2. ​​Read magazines or newspapers
3. Produce non-artistic writing (such as a diary or newsletters)
4. Produce art (such as painting or poetry)
5. Play a musical instrument
6. Play structured games (such as board games or crossword puzzles)
7. Participate in hobbies (such as model building or gardening)

These were grouped into three categories:

• reading-writing activities (activities 1-3)
• art-music activities (activities 4-5)
• games-hobbies activities (activities 6-7)

They also completed several tests that assessed their memory and had their brains scanned to look at the size of the brain region that is involved in memory (the hippocampus). A full set of memory assessment data was available for 150 participants.

What was found

The researchers found that doing more reading and writing activities was linked to having better memory. The area of the brain involved in memory was also larger in the participants who took part in these activities.

What does it mean?

The study shows that engaging in literacy activities such as reading books or writing a diary, from early adulthood could help memory in people with MS. This could be because as adults most of our new knowledge comes from reading about things and this could help protect the brain areas involved in learning and memory from MS related cognitive problems. Although the study did not find a benefit to memory from activities involving art, music, games or hobbies, the researchers highlight this may be because these activities may involve learning and remembering in a different way and using a different brain area to the one looked at in this study.

The limitation of the study was that it asked the participants to recall the types of activities they were doing in the past. The strengths of the study are that they studied people with MS from different countries who spoke different languages and still found a similar result, so the results are probably not due to a specific cultural or language factor. The researchers conclude by saying further studies would be needed to confirm the link between engaging in literacy activities and better memory in people with MS. However they do say that this could lead to programmes of activities that could help to preserve the so-called ‘cognitive reserve’ and protect against memory problems in people with MS.

Sumowski JF, Rocca MA, Leavitt VM, et al.
Reading, writing, and reserve: Literacy activities are linked to hippocampal volume and memory in multiple sclerosis.
Mult Scler. 2016 Feb 26. pii: 1352458516630822. [Epub ahead of print]
Abstract