The first time I came across the term ‘digital dementia’, it gave me pause. I spend a lot of time coaching people to reduce their risk of dementia, working to reduce my own risk, talking and writing about the topic. It takes up a lot of space in my brain! But am I causing long-term damage to my cognition by being online?
The term ‘digital dementia’ isn’t new. It was coined by German neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr. Manfred Spitzer in 2012. It’s not a medical diagnosis, but more of a concept Spitzer uses to describe a loss of cognitive abilities due to over-reliance on all things digital.
He argues that outsourcing memory to search engines, the constant ‘pings’ of notifications, and multitasking, can weaken memory consolidation and reduce attention. He also suggests this can lead to a decreased ability for deep thought, reduced self-control, and social issues.
Lower or higher risk?
We all know that foggy, brain-achey feeling when we’ve been in the digital world for too long. But what impact is it having on our actual dementia risk? The findings are complex and not, at this point, definitive.
When a team in India reviewed the literature on this in a 2024 paper, they suggested that heavy passive screen use may lead to dementia-like cognitive changes (attention, memory, processing speed) though it frames them as ‘behavioural changes’ rather than the medical condition dementia.
On the flip side, a large meta-analysis published this spring in the journal Nature and looking at over 400,000 older adults, found that higher use of digital technologies was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment and slower cognitive decline. Other research published earlier this year found that ‘digital isolation’ – ie not using tech very much, or having little access to it – was associated with higher dementia risk.
Creative pursuits
What is clear is that screen-based sedentary behaviour correlates with increased risk of all types of dementia. A paper that looked at research from the UK Biobank study found this in relation to watching TV for more than an hour a day. But using tech to engage with others, learn new things or challenge ourselves? Perhaps not.
Research published a few weeks ago found engaging in creative pursuits, like dance, music or visual arts, is associated with a measurable slowing of brain ageing. You’ll have heard this before, but what’s interesting in this study is that the research team looked at how this might happen.
They created a ‘brain clock’ that estimates how old a brain looks, or behaves. That clock allowed them to look at the difference between predicted brain age and chronological age: the ‘brain age gap’ or BAG. A negative BAG suggests the brain looks younger than its chronological age, ie ageing is delayed.
Time to tango?
The team looked at four creative pursuits and found that experts had the youngest looking brains – for visual artists the gaps between brain age and actual age was more than six years. The magnitude of the effect scaled with degree of expertise: the more skilled participants had younger brains, but any form of training made a difference. I particularly liked that one section of the research team are based in Argentina and studied tango dancers, the most expert of whom had brains five and a half years younger than their age. I’ve always wanted to tango!
Where it gets even more interesting, and brings us back to ‘digital dementia’, is that gamers had brains that were also five and a half years younger than their chronological age. I’ve never played this kind of ‘game’ online (the one used in the study is called StarCraft II – I have no idea what that is) but apparently its combination of strategy and rapid decision-making is good for the brain. So even though the gamers were sat at a screen, they were ‘de-ageing’ their brains by their activities.
A brain work out
What’s happening here is that the regions of the brain that get used most during creative pursuits tend to be the ones most vulnerable to ageing. This happens particularly in fronto-parietal networks, which are involved in attention, motor control, coordination, and related creative processes. Creativity is, essentially, giving the areas of the brain most likely to age a work out.
Now, who’s up for a trip to Buenos Aires to learn to tango?!
GET CLEAR ON NEXT STEPS TO REDUCE DEMENTIA RISK
I’m running a mini-course in December to help you bring your brain to the top of the to-do list — and get clear on the brain-healthy habits to build in 2026. It will include:
- One private podcast episode (perfect for a walk)
- Two live workshop sessions: one to prioritise your brain, one to build your next steps
- Clarity on which brain-health habits actually move the needle on reducing dementia risk
- A plan to prioritise your cognition as we head into 2026
Everything’s recorded, and it’ll cost £22 / $29. December 10-12th
RECIPES FOR THE COLD
It’s suddenly turned very nippy – we had snow here in London a couple of days ago. Although it didn’t settle, it was a reminder that winter has arrived. So here are a few favourite seasonal warmers from the recipe archive:
Jerusalem artichoke soup with Swiss cheese
Chocolate chestnut orange cake
Susan
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