For Seniors Looking to Stay Sharp in the Pandemic, Try a Game of Spades

With recent studies finding that social isolation is associated with an almost 50 percent increased risk of dementia, seniors can gain some relief and keep their cognitive skills sharp during the pandemic through a game of spades, reports National Public Radio . It is a hierarchical game where the two of spades serves as the ultimate trump card, followed by the ace, king, queen, and jack. Paired players must be on the same page without communicating with each other. "You have to keep track of all the cards, there's a huge memory load. It's really fast," says Denise Park at the University of Texas at Dallas. "So there's a huge speed load, it's a multitasking situation that really, I would say, overloads or loads the cognitive system to its maximum ability." The game forces the frontal cortex to operate with precision, "so it's exercising the part of your brain that involves a lot of reasoning and processing of information and evaluation and decision making," Park explains.