This study used ChatGPT to rate how complex people’s past jobs were, then showed that this AI-generated score predicted older Singaporeans’ thinking skills and brain health better than standard measures like income or education level.
Using the same group of older Asian adults as a related study, this research looked further at how simple physical tests relate to changes in thinking skills, finding that a person’s existing memory status affects how strong this link is.
In a small trial, an antioxidant supplement called ergothioneine was safe for older adults with mild memory problems over one year, and was linked to better verbal memory and a steadier brain-health marker, compared with a placebo group whose memory and markers got worse.
Analysing the natural speech of 148 English-speaking Singaporeans, this study found that people with a memory-focused form of mild cognitive impairment used fewer specific, concrete words than others — a pattern also seen in Alzheimer’s disease — suggesting speech patterns could help spot early cognitive decline.
This is a related paper further examining gaps between people’s ‘thinking age’ and ‘physical age’ compared with their real age, and how these gaps relate to mild memory problems, building on the group’s earlier work on this topic.
Using an international ageing database, this study looked at gaps between people’s ‘thinking age’ and ‘physical age’ compared with their real age, and how these gaps relate to mild memory problems and related behaviour changes.
In a study of 902 older Singaporeans, about 1 in 5 had mild memory problems, and these could be grouped into three types based on their emotional outlook — mostly positive, negative, or neutral. Those with a negative outlook had less education, less social support, and more depression, possibly putting them at higher risk of further decline.
This trial found that a two-year choir-singing programme gave a small but real boost to thinking skills in older Singaporeans at risk of memory decline, compared with health education, though there were no differences in brain scans or ageing markers.
This five-year follow-up of an earlier mindfulness trial looked at longer-term effects on mild depression, anxiety, and general thinking skills in older adults with early memory problems, extending the original nine-month findings.
In a group of 716 older Asian adults, this study found that a simple test of standing up and walking was more closely linked to planning and decision-making skills than walking speed or a chair-stand test, especially in those with mild memory problems.
