They claim that the seasons of the year affect our brain

And in this framework, some studies have emerged to try to understand the possible changes.

Unlike cognition, the affective changes that occur with the seasons are already widely known by scientists and clinicians.

According to scientists, the four seasons exert power over our brains in Seasonal Affective Disorder, a type of depression that occurs predominantly during the winter months. Other studies have concluded that the onset of schizophrenia is more likely to occur in the cold season.

According to a study published in the journal PLOS Medicine, Andrew Lim of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center and the University of Toronto, Canada, and other scientists, involving more than 3,000 adults and seniors with and without Alzheimer’s disease, suggests that the seasonal impact goes beyond the well-known affective disorders.

This shows that adults with and without Alzheimer’s disease have better cognitive abilities in late summer and early fall and worse functions in winter and spring.

Therefore, dementia symptoms can be expected to peak in the winter and spring of each year due to a measurable decline in mental ability.

The group of scientists sought to investigate whether the season of the year can influence poorer cognition in healthy adults, as well as those with dementia. All participants underwent neuropsychological testing, which included a battery of 19 cognitive tests; In addition, a subset of the participants was tested for levels of a protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

The authors found that average cognitive functioning was higher in summer and fall than in winter and spring. The difference was calculated to be the equivalent of 4.8 years of normal age-related cognitive decline. In all, the researchers analyzed data from 3,353 people enrolled in three different studies in the United States, Canada, and France.