Healthy Minds for Life A Message from Lee Ryan, Professor, Psychology Department: Director, BIO5 Brain and Body Imaging Center at the University of Arizona Promoting Brain Health through Arts Engagement
from the arts. Among young children, studies have shown that being involved in arts activities benefits childhood brain development, enhances learning and creativity, and is associated with positive behaviors such as altruism and empathy as well as long-term higher educational attainment. How could something as simple as taking up painting or learning to dance provide so many health benefits? Most likely, many factors positively influence our health. Enhancing social connectedness and decreasing loneliness increase the likelihood that we engage in healthy activities, including eating healthy meals and being physically active. Decreasing stress, anxiety, and depression influences a variety of important physiological mechanisms such as stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and increasing neuroplasticity – the ability of the brain to build new connections. We can think of artistic activities as multi- faceted interventions that collectively benefit our physical and mental health. Of course, it’s well known that many of these benefits, including alleviating stress and decreasing depression, also happen when people engage in physical exercise. So, is there something special about the arts? The answer is clear, yes. Arts engagement promotes creativity, encourages self-expression, and allows people to share with others on an emotional level, leading to self- awareness, self-knowledge, and personal insights. The arts also connect us with beauty. Much of what we find “beautiful” is highly subjective, and yet we often have a shared experience of beautiful – a sunset, a landscape, a painting or a piece of music. Neuroscientists are beginning to understand what happens in the brain when we perceive beauty.
In recent years, programs have popped up all over the world encouraging people to get involved with community arts – through music, dance, photography, theatre, poetry, folk art, and many others. According to the World Health Organization, engaging in arts activities offers a wide range of health benefits, both physical and psychological, and leads to increases in overall well-being and quality of life. Several recent studies have also shown that arts engagement protects against cognitive decline among older adults. The health benefits attributed to arts engagement are surprisingly extensive. Becoming involved in visual arts, theatre, literature, or music has been shown to improve health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and stroke by reducing symptoms, slowing disease progression, and accelerating disease recovery. Mental health benefits include reducing anxiety and depression, alleviating chronic stress, and reducing grief and negative emotions. Just as important, arts engagement appears to enhance cognitive functions such as memory and mental control among older adults and decreases the risk for developing cognitive impairment in later life. Arts engagement also has a positive impact on our personal well-being. The arts help individuals express themselves, develop coping skills, and build self- esteem. Since many of these activities take place in group settings, arts engagement leads to increased social interaction and connectedness, improved interpersonal skills, and reductions in feelings of loneliness, isolation, and hopelessness. It’s not just older adults who benefit
Whether it’s visual art, photographs of nature, or music, researchers find that these experiences activate regions of the brain that play a key role in our feelings of reward and pleasure. The activation of these pathways not only makes us feel good, but they also enhance the brain’s cognitive systems including memory and attention. Arizona people understand the message. As just one example, the Arizona Commission on the Arts (https://azarts. gov/programs) has created programs to encourage lifelong arts engagement. One of their programs entitled AZ Creative Aging provides training and resources for artists and arts organizations to support high-quality arts programs for older adults throughout our community. You can also find lists of arts activities through these websites: Tucson Lifestyle, Visit Tucson, and the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona. Give it a try. Attend a gallery tour, take a class in painting or pottery, or join a choir. You’ll be doing something very positive for yourself and for your brain. Professor, Psychology Department: Director, BIO5 Brain and Body Imaging Center at the University of Arizona. She is a researcher studying aging and Alzheimer’s disease and is a member of the Precision Aging Network. You can find more information about the Precision Aging Network at our website: https:// precisionagingnetwork.org/. To hear about ways that you can participate in our research studies, email us at healthymindsforlife@email.arizona.edu.
November/December 2024, Never Too Late | Page 9
Pima Council on Aging
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