Column: Answer on the tip of your tongue? Students quiz aging adults to improve brain function
LA TimesEddie Nash, right, a UCLA sophomore and volunteer with the UCLA Brain Exercise Initiative, participates in a trivia quiz with seniors at a residential facility on May 13 in Westwood. Eddie Nash, a UCLA sophomore and volunteer with the UCLA Brain Exercise Initiative, leads a brain quiz with seniors at a residential facility May 13 in Westwood. “We connected 200 older adults with high school kids,” said Nash, who joined the nonprofit Brain Exercise Initiative as part of a service training requirement at UCLA. The goal is to improve cognitive function, and the Brain Exercise Initiative website states: “We believe that through simple brain exercises … we can slow the onset of Alzheimer’s.” That is not a widely held conviction among neuroscientists and geriatric specialists I’ve spoken to about the merits of word games, crossword puzzles and cognitive training drills. She said she has occasional “mind boggle” but no specific memory issues, and she thinks the Brain Exercise Initiative is a far better use of her time than watching television.
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