How a First Grader Can Make You (or Your Mom) Smarter

The best way to keep your mom's mind sharp might be to send her to kindergarten. When older adults joined kindergarten through third-grade classrooms -- to help out, of course -- the kids achieved more. And the grown-ups had an even greater benefit: They shored up parts of their brains in ways that could protect them from Alzheimer's disease.

Numerous studies have found that staying physically active, socially connected, or mentally stimulated helps to keep aging brains sharp. But this research put all those things together for the 24 women (age 60+) it placed in elementary-school classrooms in Baltimore. Through a well-known social-service program called Experience Corps, women volunteered for 15 hours a week. After 6 months, researchers scanned their brains and found that the volunteers had increased activity in the parts (prefrontal cortex) that often decline with age (and take the ability to focus with it). Those changes weren't seen in a group of similar women who didn't volunteer.

The findings affirm that you (or your mom) can change your brain for the better, no matter what your age. Sure, you can sit at home and do a crossword puzzle or get up and play Ping-Pong and get some benefit from that (solving tough puzzles and playing Ping-Pong do help shore up defenses against Alzheimer's), but volunteering and being among other people also help give meaning and purpose to life, which benefits your mood as well as your memory. Another bonus: Being in a room full of kids gives a person no choice but to be physically active.