Having a good listener improves your brain health

Date:
August 16, 2021
Source:
NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Summary:
Researchers find having someone to listen to you when you need to
talk is associated with greater cognitive resilience. New study
shows social interaction in adulthood can stave off cognitive
decline despite brain aging.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Supportive social interactions in adulthood are important for your ability
to stave off cognitive decline despite brain aging or neuropathological
changes such as those present in Alzheimer's disease, a new study finds.


==========================================================================
In the study publishing August 16 in JAMA Network Open, researchers
observed that simply having someone available most or all of the time whom
you can count on to listen to you when you need to talk is associated
with greater cognitive resilience -- a measure of your brain's ability
to function better than would be expected for the amount of physical
aging- or disease-related changes in the brain, which many neurologists
believe can be boosted by engaging in mentally stimulating activities,
physical exercise, and positive social interactions.

"We think of cognitive resilience as a buffer to the effects of brain
aging and disease," says lead researcher Joel Salinas, MD, the Lulu
P. and David J.

Levidow Assistant Professor of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of
Medicine and member of the Department of Neurology's Center for Cognitive Neurology. "This study adds to growing evidence that people can take
steps, either for themselves or the people they care about most, to
increase the odds they'll slow down cognitive aging or prevent the
development of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease -- something that is
all the more important given that we still don't have a cure for the
disease." An estimated 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, a progressive condition that affects mostly those over 65 and interferes with memory, language, decision-making, and the ability to
live independently.

Salinas says that while the disease usually affects an older population,
the results of this study indicate that people younger than 65 would
benefit from taking stock of their social support. For every unit
of decline in brain volume, individuals in their 40s and 50s with low
listener availability had a cognitive age that was four years older than
those with high listener availability.

"These four years can be incredibly precious. Too often we think
about how to protect our brain health when we're much older, after
we've already lost a lot of time decades before to build and sustain brain-healthy habits," says Salinas. "But today, right now, you can
ask yourself if you truly have someone available to listen to you in
a supportive way, and ask your loved ones the same. Taking that simple
action sets the process in motion for you to ultimately have better odds
of long-term brain health and the best quality of life you can have."
Salinas also recommends that physicians consider adding this question
to the standard social history portion of a patient interview: asking
patients whether they have access to someone they can count on to listen
to them when they need to talk. "Loneliness is one of the many symptoms
of depression, and has other health implications for patients," says
Salinas. "These kinds of questions about a person's social relationships
and feelings of loneliness can tell you a lot about a patient's broader
social circumstances, their future health, and how they're really doing
outside of the clinic." How the Study Was Conducted Researchers used
one of the longest running and most closely monitored community-based
cohorts in the U.S., the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), as the source
of their study's 2,171 participants, with an average age of 63. FHS participants self-reported information on the availability of supportive
social interactions including listening, good advice, love and affection, sufficient contact with people they're close with, and emotional support.

Study participants' cognitive resilience was measured as the relative
effect of total cerebral brain volume on global cognition, using MRI
scans and neuropsychological assessments taken as part of the FHS. Lower
brain volumes tend to associate with lower cognitive function, and in
this study, researchers examined the modifying effect of individual
forms of social support on the relationship between cerebral volume and cognitive performance.

The cognitive function of individuals with greater availability of
one specific form of social support was higher relative to their total
cerebral volume. This key form of social support was listener availability
and it was highly associated with greater cognitive resilience.

Researchers note that further study of individual social interactions may improve understanding of the biological mechanisms that link psychosocial factors to brain health. "While there is still a lot that we don't
understand about the specific biological pathways between psychosocial
factors like listener availability and brain health, this study gives
clues about concrete, biological reasons why we should all seek good
listeners and become better listeners ourselves," says Salinas.

In addition to Salinas, researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, the McCance Center for Brain Health
at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Turner Institute for Brain and
Mental Health at Monash University, the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, the Boston University School of Public Health, the University
of California Davis, and the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas Health Sciences
Center San Antonio were also involved in the study.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by NYU_Langone_Health_/_NYU_Grossman_School_of_Medicine.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Joel Salinas et al. Association of Social Support With Brain
Volume and
Cognition. JAMA Netw Open, 2021 DOI:
10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.21122 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210816112101.htm

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