Making art keeps your brains sharp

Making art keeps your brains sharp

January 12, 2016

Voorblad Kalender 2016

This is fantastic news: making art has a positive effect on the brains. Who is keeping an artistic hobby alive, the inevitable wear out of the brains at a later age can slow down or even reverse. All the more reason to go this year to artistic work!

Fresh and fit until late in life, which we all want ?! Not only physical, even spiritual. But how do you keep your brains sharp? For example, with an artistic hobby! Recent research by the prestigious Mayo Clinic in the United States shows that artistic process, the likelihood of cognitive impairment decreases considerably.

For four years the researchers followed 256 people between 80 and 89 years and brought their cognitive state into the picture. What came out? All those with an artistic hobby had a whopping 73% lower risk of cognitive impairment. On average, 49.2% of participants in the study had to deal with a deterioration in their cognitive abilities, while only 16.7% was the case with the artistic people. Is that good news or not ?!

Making the difference between art and looking at art

Now the Mayo Clinic not the only institute which showed the relationship between making art and the health of the brains. Thus conducted a similar study in 2013 in Germany. Here the emphasis was on making the difference between art and looking at art. Fo ten weeks they followed 14 men and women from 62 to 70 years in a variety of practical art classes; a second group of 14 people of the same age took a course in appreciating and evaluating art. You feel him coming: the first group showed a significant improvement in psychological resilience and brain activity, while this effect in the group art viewers was lacking.

So it seems that even a relatively short period of artistic training can slowvdown the inevitable wear out of the brains later in life may or may even reverse it.

The creative flow is not only tasty but also healthy

About the ‘why’ of these relationships there is indeed still much speculation. Many researchers believe that the positive effect is caused by cognitive and motoric processes together resulting in a situation where someone engrossed in artistic activity. This ‘flow’ – which many creative people surely will recognize – is not only delicious but also very healthy. So for those who still do not paint, draw or sculpt; All the more reason to look out and search for a course this year, regardless of your age …

found ricknet.nl, Making Art keeps your brains sharp