In The News: Playing Board Games May Slow Cognitive Decline; Biology is harder
Chris Garlock | Published on 12/1/2023
Playing Board Games May Slow Cognitive Decline, Improve QoL: Playing chess or other board games slows cognitive decline and improves quality of life in older patients, results of a new systematic review suggest. "For patients who are elderly and suffer from social isolation and mild cognitive issues, I would definitely recommend board games," study investigator Frederico Emanuele Pozzi, MD, a neurology resident at Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori in Monza, Italy, told Medscape Medical News. The findings were presented at the virtual XXVI World Congress of Neurology (WCN). Read more here. Thanks to Phil Straus and Steve Zilber. photo by Peter Armenia from the recent Gotham Fall Go Tourney.
She was a semi-pro Go player but learned that biology is even harder: When an AI beat one of the world’s best Go players in 2017, Julia Joung felt relief. She’d spent her childhood in Taiwan mastering the ancient game and once aspired to become a professional player, representing her country. “I felt like part of the mystery of Go was that it was this unsolvable problem. You could get better and better and there was just no end to it,” says Joung, 32. Read the rest in the MIT Technology Review. Thanks to Steve Zilber for sharing.