Getting your head around these sentences could ward off dementia according to new study – do you understand them?

Grasping complex sentences could keep your brain sharp, potentially lowering your risk of dementia, according to a new study.

Reading prose including: ‘buy sell signals remains a particular,’ ‘jiffy lube of – of therapies, yes,’ and ‘people on Insta be like, “gross!”‘ can cause the brain to work harder – strengthening neural connections.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used artificial intelligence to test how complicated sentences affect the brain’s language centers – compared to simple ones. 

These brain areas are found in the left frontal and temporal lobes (which sit behind the ear).

The team compiled 1,000 sentences of varying complexities and had five participants read them while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity.

They found that complex sentences elicit a stronger response in the brain compared to simpler ones, making the organ work harder to comprehend them.

The findings align with recent research that suggests giving your brain high-effort activities like learning a new language or reading a newspaper strengthens pathways in the brain, slashing your risk of dementia, which affects one in 10 older Americans. 

Researchers looked at 13 leisure activities and their influence on dementia risk — six were deemed to be ‘intellectual,’ and seven were considered ‘social.’ Mobile phone use and reading the paper were found to be statistically significant in reducing dementia risk 

But now, researchers have pinpointed a collection of specific sentences that have this effect. 

Dr Evelina Fedorenko, an associate professor of neuroscience at MIT who was involved in the study, said that when the brain encounters a sentence with familiar words or structure, it doesn’t have to work hard to understand it. 

‘However, if a sentence uses strange language or structure, the brain has to work harder to comprehend it.

The sentences were also fed into an artificial intelligence model similar to ChatGPT. From there, the team developed an encoding model, which predicts how the human language network could respond to a new sentence. 

They found that sentences with a higher ‘surprisal’ – meaning it was less common and familiar – generated stronger brain responses, which showed that they took more effort to process.  

‘We found that the sentences that elicit the highest brain response have a weird grammatical thing and/or weird meaning,’ Dr Fedorenko said. ‘There’s something slightly unusual about these sentences.’  

Other recent research has found that engaging in mentally complex tasks like reading unfamiliar sentences could ward off conditions like dementia.

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a range of progressive neurological disorders (those affecting the brain), which impact memory, thinking and behavior. 

Common symptoms include memory loss, poor judgment, confusion, repeating questions, difficulty communicating, taking longer to complete normal daily tasks, acting impulsively, and mobility issues. 

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, dementia affects up to one in 10 American adults over age 65. 

A British study of 282,000 participants between ages 40 and 69 found that over the course of seven years, those who took education classes, such as to learn a new language, had a 19 percent lower risk of developing dementia. 

Additionally, a study from University College London found that women who read the newspaper regularly have a 35 percent lower risk than the rest of the population. Engaging in intellectual activities like attending art or music events also resulted in lower dementia risk.