{"id":933331,"date":"2026-10-19T04:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T04:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933331\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T04:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T04:02:10","slug":"lifes-experiences-may-hold-clues-to-healthy-brain-ageing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933331\/","title":{"rendered":"Life\u2019s experiences may hold clues to healthy brain ageing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haveagonews.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BrainHealth-1.jpg\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"391\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BrainHealth-1-696x391.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"BrainHealth\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Staying connected and enjoying meaningful activities may help protect brain health as we get older, with Australian research exploring why some people remain more resilient after traumatic life experiences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An Adelaide University study involving 745 adults aged 50 to 86 examined the links between trauma, post-traumatic stress symptoms and cognitive performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The findings, published in the\u00a0Journal of Affective Disorders, suggest that people with higher \u201ccognitive reserve\u201d may be better buffered against the cognitive and psychological impacts of trauma.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding cognitive reserve<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cognitive reserve describes the brain\u2019s capacity to adapt and cope with changes associated with ageing. It is thought to develop through enriching experiences across life, including education and leisure activities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Researcher Dr Sabrina Sghirripa said discussions about healthy brain ageing often focus on staying active and socially engaged. However, understanding the influence of difficult life experiences is also essential.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About 87 per cent of participants reported directly experiencing at least one traumatic event. Yet experiencing trauma does not necessarily mean someone will develop cognitive difficulties later in life.<\/p>\n<p>Building resilience through life<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Participants completed assessments covering exposure to traumatic events, post-traumatic stress symptoms, cognitive performance and measures of cognitive reserve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Higher cognitive reserve was associated with weaker links between traumatic experiences, post-traumatic stress symptoms and poorer cognitive performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The findings point to cognitive reserve as a possible source of resilience. However, the study identified associations rather than proving that particular activities prevent trauma-related cognitive difficulties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Sghirripa said leisure activities and social engagement could offer opportunities to support cognitive reserve in later life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For people who have experienced adversity, the research offers an encouraging message: difficult experiences do not inevitably lead to poorer wellbeing as they get older.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cStaying socially connected and engaged in meaningful activities may help protect cognitive and mental health in later life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staying connected and enjoying meaningful activities may help protect brain health as we get older, with Australian research&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[67529,64,63,439730,14608,27219,137,7060,34760,200147,518],"class_list":["post-933331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-adelaide-university","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-research","tag-brain-health","tag-cognitive-reserve","tag-health","tag-healthy-ageing","tag-mental-wellbeing","tag-social-connection","tag-trauma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}