Does sex help older brains to work better?
By Catharine Paddock PhD
New research found that older
adults who reported having sex at least once each week got better scores on
certain cognitive tests than those who reported having sex only once per month
or not at all.
The study - by researchers at
Coventry University and the University of Oxford, both in the United Kingdom -
is published in the Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological and Social
Sciences.
The research builds on earlier
work, which found that sexually active older adults performed better on some
tests of mental ability than those who were not sexually active.
However, it is not clear why
such a link exists. The authors refer to other studies that have found that
older adults who are physically active and also have busy social lives are
likely to perform better on tests of mental function.
These might suggest that the
link between sexual activity and cognitive function is just a reflection of the
social and physical elements of sexual activity.
Lead author Dr. Hayley Wright,
from the Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement at
Coventry University, and colleagues argue that sexual activity is a complex
phenomenon with the potential to transcend not only its social and physical
components, but also the emotional, psychological, and biological aspects.
They proposed that more
frequent sexual activity may be linked with improved cognition, in the same way
as such a link exists for other activities. Thus, they designed a study using a
broader range of cognitive tests to investigate the link.
Study used range of cognitive
tests
For their investigation, the
team recruited 73 participants (28 men and 45 women) between 50 and 83 years of
age, aged 62 on average.
The participants filled in a
questionnaire that asked general questions about health and lifestyle, as well
as how often they had engaged in sexual activity in the past 12 months. They
were asked to respond with: once per week, once per month, or never.
Sexual activity was defined as
"engagement in sexual intercourse, masturbation, or petting/fondling."
The participants also
underwent tests of mental ability. One of these - the Addenbrookes Cognitive
Examination III - includes assessment of memory, verbal fluency, language,
attention, and visuospatial ability, which is the ability to visualize objects
and the spaces between them.
The verbal fluency test
involves naming as many animals as possible in 60 seconds, and then to say as
many words starting with the letter "F" as possible. The visuospatial
ability test includes drawing a clock face from memory and copying a
complicated design.
In their analysis, the
researchers adjusted the results to account for gender, age, number of years of
formal education, and cardiovascular health. They took heart health into
account as this might influence frequency of sex and brain function.
Frequency of sex linked to
cognitive scores
The results showed that frequency of sexual activity did not change with age, education, cardiovascular health, marital status, quality of life, and other factors.
More participants reported
having had sex once each week than once per month or never in the last 12
months.
Participants who reported
never having sex scored lower on average for overall cognitive function and
verbal fluency compared with participants who reported having sex every week.
Also, participants who
reported having sex once every month scored lower on average for verbal fluency
and marginally lower on visuospatial ability, compared with those who reported
having sex at least once weekly.
The team found no link between
frequency of sexual activity and attention, memory, or language ability.
Because of its design, the
study cannot prove that more frequent sex increases brain function; it can only
establish a link and its strength. However, the researchers claim that it does
shed more light on the association.
As Dr. Wright argues,
"Every time we do another piece of research we are getting a little bit
closer to understanding why this association exists at all, what the underlying
mechanisms are, and whether there is a 'cause and effect' relationship between
sexual activity and cognitive function in older people."
She and her colleagues suggest
that further studies should investigate the biological aspects of the link and
examine, for instance, the roles of dopamine and oxytocin.
"People don't like to
think that older people have sex - but we need to challenge this conception at
a societal level and look at what impact sexual activity can have on those aged
50 and over, beyond the known effects on sexual health and general
well-being."
-Dr. Hayley Wright
SOURCE:
MEDICAL NEWS TODAY
Comments
Post a Comment