Population aging has prompted considerable interest in identifying modifiable factors that may help protect the brain and its functions. Collectively, epidemiological studies show that leisure activities with high mental and social demands are linked with better cognition in old age. The extent to which socio-intellectual activities relate to the brain’s structure is, however, not yet fully understood. This systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes magnetic resonance imaging studies that have investigated whether cognitive and social activities correlate with measures of gray and white matter volume, white matter microstructure and white matter lesions. Across eighteen included studies (total n = 8429), activity levels were associated with whole-brain white matter volume, white matter lesions and regional gray matter volume, although effect sizes were small. No associations were found for global gray matter volume and the evidence concerning white matter microstructure was inconclusive. While the causality of the reviewed associations needs to be established, our findings implicate socio-intellectual activity levels as promising targets for interventions aimed at promoting healthy brain aging.

人口老龄化引起了人们对确定可能有助于保护大脑及其功能的可改变因素的极大兴趣。总的来说，流行病学研究表明，具有高精神和社会需求的休闲活动与老年人更好的认知有关。然而，社会智力活动与大脑结构的关联程度尚不完全清楚。本系统回顾和荟萃分析总结了磁共振成像研究，这些研究调查了认知和社会活动是否与灰质和白质体积、白质微观结构和白质病变的测量相关。在 18 项纳入研究（总 n = 8429）中，活动水平与全脑白质体积、白质病变和区域灰质体积相关，虽然效果很小。没有发现与全球灰质体积相关，关于白质微观结构的证据也没有定论。虽然需要确定所审查关联的因果关系，但我们的研究结果表明，社会智力活动水平是旨在促进健康大脑衰老的干预措施的有希望的目标。