This One Cognitive Skill May Be a Better Predictor of Life Expectancy Than Health Habits [View all]
https://scitechdaily.com/this-one-cognitive-skill-may-be-a-better-predictor-of-life-expectancy-than-health-habits/
A new study shows that among various cognitive abilities, verbal fluency is uniquely linked to longer life in older adults.
Everyone ages, but some individuals defy expectations and live far longer than predicted. Research has pointed to an unexpected factor that may play a role in longevity: intelligence.
However, intelligence is a complex trait made up of multiple components, such as memory, reasoning, and verbal ability. In a 2024 study published in Clinical Psychological Science, Paolo Ghisletta of the University of Geneva identified one specific aspect of intelligence, verbal fluency, or the ability to access and use vocabulary, as being linked to longer life.
Ghisletta’s findings draw on data from the Berlin Aging Study, a long-term project that began shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 (Baltes & Mayer, 1999). The study followed 516 participants, aged 70 to 105, tracking them until their deaths – sometimes over a span of up to 18 years. Researchers collected detailed information on a wide range of factors, including dental health, stress levels, financial status, and cognitive abilities. According to Ghisletta, this made it a “rich and rare data set.”
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You would expect someone with trump's fine verbal fluency would not live very long...