Birdwatching rewires the brain and slows cognitive decline

Birdwatching can help slow brain ageing and is increasingly being used as therapy for dementia patients.

Every week, a group of elderly birders spend hours hunkering down inside a wooden hide in the English countryside, peering through binoculars as they excitedly share what they spot. An oystercatcher's long, bright beak probing the pebbled ground; two great crested grebes bobbing in the water, their plumed heads poised. 

Most of these birdwatchers have difficulty recalling what happened earlier that day, and might struggle to follow a conversation. But they become animated when swapping notes on the birds that fill the sky around Forge Mill Lake in the UK's West Midlands.

Among them is 78-year-old Harold*. He loved the outdoors when he was younger, but more recently dementia has made him withdrawn and anxious. His daughter Lucy* brought him here, hoping that the change of scenery and peaceful lake might be good for him. After an apprehensive start, Harold began smiling when someone pointed out a robin and enjoyed watching the ducks splashing in the water. Blue tits darted between the nearby trees, and Lucy saw Harold laugh for the first time in a long time.

"For that moment in time he was present in the moment, he wasn't worried about his memory or his confidence. That is very powerful, in a gentle way," says Jenny Budinger, a community dementia advisor at Age UK, the non-profit that runs the birdwatching group.

Birdwatching is increasingly recognised as a valuable way for elderly people and dementia patients to spend their time, with groups set up in nursing homes in the UK, Germany and the US. Paying attention to birds, even through the window, can help older people feel more connected to others, experience more positive emotions and boost memory skills. Now new research shows that birdwatching can reshape the brain, much like learning an athletic sport or a musical instrument – and may even help slow the brain's ageing.

Better-organised brains

Meanwhile, in the laboratory, neuroscientists are investigating how birdwatching impacts the brain. They tested keen birdwatchers' identification skills to determine who was an expert and who was a novice, then looked at their brains. The scientists found that the very structure of experts' brains was different – and that birdwatching expertise might slow age-related decline by keeping the brain more organised.

Erik Wing, who led this research at Baycrest Academy for Research and Education in Toronto, Canada, compared MRI brain scans from bird experts to those of novices while they identified birds. He found that expert brains were wired differently in regions important for functions like attention, visual perception and visual recognition. 

Among expert birders, these regions showed more activity – particularly when they were asked to identify birds they weren't already familiar with. The findings don't prove whether structural brain differences are the cause or effect of birdwatching expertise. But, Wing says, one explanation is that the areas of the brain used for birdwatching might undergo "neuroplasticity" – the ability to........

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