I am 64 years old, finally retired and trying to make up for my misspent youth. Now I want to make every day count—it is not primarily about having fun, unless you count studying (languages) and (athletic) training fun. I was concerned that after many years of finding nothing good to read, books could no longer hold my interest. To my relief, I have found that this is not completely true. However, the authors that can still keep me engaged write crime fiction. Besides simple diversion, how can I justify this use of my time? I can pretty much spot the plot devices and tropes.
I’ve seen some pretty serious critiques of those studies though. Basically it comes down to the fact that the people reading/puzzling ARE NOT THE SAME PEOPLE as the ones watching TV. So therefore comparing them and saying one activity PREVENTS dementia is a flawed analysis. It maybe more likely that people with mild dementia already don’t like doing brain-engaging activities precisely because it hurts their dementia riddled brain, whereas folks without mild dementia have brains that can tolerate intellectually stimulating challenges.
It’s often repeated, but people still ignore it all the time - correlation does not imply causation.