While Cognitive Retention Therapy (CRT)™ is a new program, the idea is not. There are many news articles, and studies that have been done and are continually published about the “use it or lose it” theory. Scientific American Mind says neurologists have produced studies that suggest that adults who regularly challenge their brains in later life succumb to dementia less often, less severely and at older ages than seniors who are intellectually lazy. They say the mature brain can grow new neural connections and strengthen weak ones, if exercised. As with muscles, “use it or lose it” applies. Among other things they talk about stimulating the brain early on to protect against dementia, but if you are already past that stage, the experts say that you should start challenging the brain now.

“A systematic program of cognitive rehabilitation can result in maintained improvement in performance on specific cognitive and functional tasks in mildly impaired Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients.” (Lowenstein 2004)
“In healthy elderly, an increased participation in common mental activity was associated with reduced decline in global cognition and reduced risk of AD.” (Wilson 2002)
“Learning certain memory strategies improved short term memory in mild AD patients. (Alvia, 2002) and healthy elderly” (Valenzuela, 2002; Ball, 2002)
"...stimulation of the brain has beneficial effects and may, to a certain degree, restore several aspects of cognition and other central functions." (Swaab 03)

“With AD patients, playing bingo, cognitive training therapies, and psycho-education help improve memory cognition.” (Sobel 2002)
A prospective cohort study known as the Bronx Aging Study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that “Cognitive activities reduce the risk of AD. Specifically, the cohort study which included 469 people age 75 and older, found after adjusting for sex, age, educational level, other medical illnesses and baseline cognitive status, that certain leisure activities were associated with reduced risk of having dementia an average of 5 years later; these include reading; board games, musical instruments, and dancing.” (Verghyese 2003)