Cognitive Labs

Its spring, which means it’s the season for fresh, juicy berries. And that’s good news for your brain.

Researchers report in the journal Annals of Neurology that women who ate berries more frequently over a period of years showed slower decline in brain functions such as memory and attention when they got older than women who ate them less often. The findings don’t confirm that eating berries can prevent dementia associated with aging, or slow down Alzheimer’s, but they suggest that the fruits may play a part in keeping brains healthy.

The protective effect of blueberries and strawberries isn’t an entirely new finding. But previous studies have involved animals and only a small number of people, which left open the possibility that it wasn’t the berries, but something else that might be influencing how quickly the brain lost its executive functions.