Table tennis may help prevent and improve dementia!?

The experiment is going into full swing. For middle-aged and older adults worried about dementia (dementia), let’s play table tennis!

　The general incorporated association T‒NEXT (headquarters: Tokyo; representative director: Yosuke Kurashima), founded by former Japan men’s national team coach Yosuke Kurashima, has been working to improve coaching standards, including for S-class coaching licenses, and to build better systems. At the same time, it is also engaged in joint research on “the prevention and improvement of dementia through table tennis.” This is likely to become a challenge that goes beyond the table tennis world and broadly conveys to people around the world the greatness of table tennis as a sport.

　In the table tennis world, it has long been said that “if you play table tennis, you’re less likely to become forgetful. It’s a sport that’s good for both the body and the mind.” Now, that is beginning to be scientifically explained. With the cooperation of MITS Technologies Co., Ltd. (representative: Yasue Mitsukura), which has advanced brainwave analysis technology, T‒NEXT announced the results of its first survey on July 31.

Table tennis is an “exercise that activates the brain.” A joint study on dementia prevention and improvement confirmed activation of the prefrontal cortex. Table tennis has its own unique strengths.

　In a preliminary test involving four healthy older adults in their 60s to 80s, clear changes in brain activity and activation were confirmed in the prefrontal cortex of all participants after they played table tennis. The “prefrontal cortex” is the brain’s highest center for thinking, making judgments, and using memory.