Theater training may be just the ticket to help seniors keep their brains sharp and prevent cognitive decline, according to a husband-wife team at Elmhurst College.

For nearly two decades, Tony and Helga Noice have studied how actors memorize their lines. They are now using acting-based interventions to improve memory and problem-solving skills in Chicago seniors.
                                                                                    
We thought about what gives the best bang for the buck and acting is this activity, said Tony Noice, a professor of theater at Elmhurst College and actor and director. With acting, there is no way to just let the material wash over you. You must be actively engaged at the present moment. Acting is physiological, cognitive and emotional.

According to Helga Noice, a cognitive psychologist at Elmhurst College, an active brain is a more effective brain. Research has shown that an older brain is generally less active and, as a result, is associated with poor memory. Therefore, the purpose in using theatrical activities is to increase the brain’s activation.

Our aim is to maintain the health of the brain, continued Helga Noice. The brain is not just one structure, she said. Neuroscientists have found that different actions activate different parts of the brain. The real aim of our study is to get as many regions of the brain working as possible.

You use it or you lose it, said Tony Noice. If we can improve seniors’ ability to remember everyday things that’s fine, but a major goal is to prevent any form of dementia. We are living longer so the older we get, the greater the chance we can develop dementia.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Noices two grants to fund research on improving brain function in older adults. With the first grant they trained seniors who lived independently in their own homes. With their most recent grant, they are teaching acting techniques to seniors who live in government-funded retirement homes.

Their average educational level is high school or GED. People without a college education are much more susceptible to Alzheimer’s, said Helga Noice. If you didn’t have a college education you may have stayed at home and not had as stimulating a job. The better educated you are, the more you are going to seek out stimulating activities, such as visiting museums and reading.

Seniors at Immanuel Residences and Oak Tree Towers in Downers Grove were placed in an acting, singing or control group. Those who took the eight-week acting course began with simple tasks such as defining what is acting. The definition of acting is living truthfully in imaginary circumstances, said Tony Noice. Residents practiced dialogue until they were performing entire scenes. 

The Noices assessed cognitive functioning before and after the course. Seniors who took the acting course showed significant gains in problem-solving and long-term comprehension, said Helga Noice. We believe that information must be processed by a number of areas of the brain simultaneously in order produce the benefits we are seeing.

Positive thinkers fared better, since a person’s belief system affects whether they’re engaged in the material. I have found that those who think there is nothing they can do to improve their cognitive health don’t improve very much, said Helga Noice.

Acting can be an awful lot of fun, too. I love it, said Cecilia Schwer, 74, a resident of Mayslake Village in Oak Brook who is now taking the acting course. I didn’t know what to expect but I found it very interesting. Elderly people today realize what a terrible thing Alzheimer’s is and we’d do anything to help stave it off.
 

By Terri Yablonsky Stat

Special to the Tribune