Engaging in activities that are mentally stimulating and challenging are essential to your well-being throughout life. Mental stimulation contributes to personal growth, enhances creative thinking and problem-solving abilities, and broadens your horizons with new learning. Like exercise for the body, mental stimulation helps the mind stay active, alert and engaged even in the face of aging or changes caused by MS.
The term “cognition” refers to all of the high-level processes carried out by the human brain. Similar to the processing done by a computer, the human brain takes in information, stores it, processes it and generates output based on that information. MS is known to cause problems with one or more of these cognitive functions. In fact, 65% of people with MS will experience some
changes in cognitive functioning, most commonly related to speed of information processing, memory and attention. It is important to report any changes you perceive in your thinking to your healthcare provider so that you can get a thorough assessment and management plan.