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 “When we look at the association between complexity of work with
people or data, we see that those in more complex jobs generally do
better on a range of cognitive ability measures,” said Alan Gow, one
of the study authors.
“That’s not necessarily surprising . . . but we were able to add an
interesting twist,” said Gow, an assistant professor of psychology
at the School of Life Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in
Edinburgh, Scotland.
The researchers knew from earlier work that complex jobs might help
protect cognitive ability later in life. So they added the childhood
IQs of 1,066 people in Scotland from a 1936 study to their analysis.
They also grouped the people from that study according to profession
- for example, architect, engineer and lawyer (higher thinking jobs)
or typist and salesperson (requiring less complicated thinking).
The study participants, all age 70 during the new analysis, took
cognitive tests that determined general thinking ability, speed and
memory. Their educational and criminal backgrounds and access to
services were also factored in.
By including data on IQ from the participants when they were 11
years old, “the association between more complex jobs and better
cognitive outcomes is reduced, but there remains a small additional
benefit for our cognitive abilities from being in more complex
jobs,” Gow told Reuters Health in an email.
Childhood IQ explained about half of the difference in later
thinking ability in the participants. And complex jobs were
responsible for about 1 to 2 percent of the cognitive differences
between people later in life, according to the results in the
journal Neurology.
The researchers said the cognitive benefit of a complex job was
similar to the benefits of not smoking on later cognition.
“It’s been proposed, for example, that more complex work with people
and data might require the deployment of various cognitive
abilities; this may develop these skills, or at least protect them
from decline, and people are exploring what those suggested
mechanisms might actually look like in terms of changes in the
brain,” Gow said.
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He's been looking at a variety of lifestyle factors that might
predict cognitive ability in older people, including leisure and
physical activity and social networks and support.
“The reason I focus on factors like these is that many, though not
all, of course, are amenable to change. If we can identify the
things that protect or harm our cognitive abilities, we will be able
to provide clear information or design better interventions,” Gow
said.
“I think the opportunity to use our thinking and reasoning skills
and continually use them throughout our lives likely contributes to
our ability to stay sharp,” said Sian Beilock, a psychology
professor at the University of Chicago.
“So being able to do complex thinking and reasoning in our
profession is one way to continually flex our cognitive horsepower
or brain power,” said Beilock, who was not involved in the study.
Other ways to ward off cognitive decline include exercise, and
remembering our strengths, rather than dwelling on what we’re
forgetting, he said.
“Doing things to get rid of those worries, whether reminding
yourself you have lots of experience or jotting down things (like
worries) in notes . . . can help ensure you can use all the brain
power at your disposal,” Beilock said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1GpNbBn Neurology, online December 9, 2014.
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