Can you dance the tango? It helps slow down brain aging

Meeri Kim

Playing music, dancing, creating art - and even playing some types of video games - aren’t just immersive and emotionally rewarding. They may actually slow down brain aging, a new study suggests. By analyzing brain activity data, the researchers found that engaging in creative pursuits of all kinds is linked to a younger-looking brain. The study was published by Nature Communications in October.

“This is not just a solution for the da Vincis of the world. Anyone can benefit from having a creative hobby, not just geniuses or professional artists,” said study author Agustín Ibáñez, director of the Latin American Brain Health Institute at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. “We are living in a world full of stress, uncertainty and despair. Creating a little bubble through art or music can have a positive impact on your brain health.”

Delayed aging

The researchers analyzed imaging data of brain activity taken from 1 467 healthy participants from around the world, including tango dancers, musicians, visual artists and strategy video game players. To quantify brain aging, they used brain clocks, which are computational models that can estimate the difference between a person’s chronological age and their brain’s biological age.

“We use brain connectivity metrics to predict your brain age, and there is a gap between this estimated age and your real age,” Ibáñez said. “This gap is informative for assessing accelerated or delayed brain aging.”

Accelerated aging of the brain, as indicated by a person’s brain appearing older than their actual age, has been observed in some people with psychiatric and neurological conditions. In the current study, Ibáñez and his colleagues wanted to investigate what other factors are associated with delayed brain aging.

The researchers found that all four creative and challenging pursuits they looked at - dance, music, visual art and strategy video games - were associated with delayed brain aging. And greater expertise and performance level seemed to help. Experts with years of practice had younger brains compared with hobbyists. Out of all participants, highly skilled tango dancers seemed to have the most youthful brains - an average of seven years younger than their chronological age.

However, even participants who learned a creative skill managed to reap some antiaging benefits. The researchers trained 24 people to play “StarCraft II,” a video game that requires strategic thinking and imagination. A control group was trained in “Hearthstone,” a rule-based video game with limited improvisation and creative play. After 30 hours of training, spread over three to four weeks, the “StarCraft II” group showed slower brain aging compared to the “Hearthstone” group.

The study used strong, well-validated methods, and its findings align with previous research showing that participation in the arts is related to younger biological age, said Daisy Fancourt, a professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London.

“There have been increasing studies identifying associations between arts engagement and both cognitive preservation and delayed time to dementia onset,” said Fancourt, who was not involved in the research. “So while replication of the findings in this new paper in other datasets will be important, they overall reinforce the importance of continued research on the health benefits of the arts.”

Protective effects even from passive activities

Even taking in art made by others - such as going to a concert or play - may have protective effects that help buffer against age-related cognitive decline. Other research suggests such receptive arts engagement may help preserve cognitive function in later life.

In a 2022 study, Jill Sonke, a research professor in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, and her colleagues analyzed data from 4,344 older adults based on six cognitive tests given in 2004 and 2011. While test performance slightly declined overall in the seven years from baseline to follow-up, engaging in receptive arts activities (such as going to a concert, play or museum) for up to three hours a week was associated with better subsequent memory.

A more recent study published in 2025 found that engaging in cognitively stimulating activities has a wide array of cognitive benefits, such as improved memory, better language ability and improved executive functioning.

The findings originate from the Long Life Family Study, a research project focused on families that have multiple people living into their 90s to uncover the biological, environmental and behavioral factors that contribute to healthy aging. Older adults without a history of family longevity who frequently participated in hobbies such as reading and attending concerts, plays and musicals were able to match the same level of good cognitive functioning as those with familial longevity.

“Even if you don’t have exceptional longevity in your family, what our results show is that you still can improve your chances for cognitive health by taking part in cognitively stimulating activities,” said Stacy Andersen, an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and lead author of the September study. “There’s no time like the present to learn something new - like photography or how to play guitar - that can also help protect your future brain.”

How to benefit from creative arts

Here are some tips from experts on nurturing a creative activity:

• Cultivate your flow state. Ibáñez thinks creativity’s power comes from entering the flow state, where stress and time fade away. Lean into activities and experiences that keep you fully engaged and deeply focused. “To truly have a creative experience demands focus, attention and practice,” he said.
• Participate in a hobby club or group. Having strong social connections is also linked to healthy aging, and a shared creative activity is one way to bond with others in your community.
• Combine creativity with movement. “Some hobbies such as dance not only engage the mind but also engage the body,” Andersen said. “Anything that keeps your heart healthy is going to also help keep your brain healthy.”
• Know that it’s never too late. Being excited to work on a creative project or hobby can provide a strong sense of purpose and fulfillment, particularly in retirement. At age 54, Sonke learned how to sing and play guitar. “It was just amazing taking up a new art form in midlife,” said Sonke, now 59. “I don’t strive to be a professional musician, but it is a huge part of my life now.”
• “The arts are phenomenally multimodal, in that they give us so many different kinds of benefits at the same time,” Sonke said. “They can engage us with information, physical movement, and uplifting activities that contribute to reduction of stress and improvement in mental health.”