Thinking is harder in winter

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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The brain is particularly efficient in summer and early autumn. In winter, however, the ability to think diminishes measurably. Some skills suffer particularly.

How well the brain works depends on many factors: sleep, diet, mental health, age, and physical activity are just a few. It is now evident that the seasons also play a role. The thinking organ worked significantly worse in winter and spring than in summer and autumn.

"This phenomenon had been seen earlier in younger people," reports Andrew Lim from the University of Toronto. However, the study situation was not entirely uniform. Lim and colleagues have now also investigated the relationship between the season and brain performance in older people. To do this, they evaluated three studies with a total of 3,353 senior citizens.

All the studies determined the cognitive performance of the participants, but also various biological factors, such as the amount of deposits in the brain.

Rigid in the brain

The evaluation showed that the seniors performed significantly worse in cognitive tests in winter and spring. This was true for mentally fit seniors as well as for those who already suffered from dementia. The loss of performance corresponded to an aging of the brain by at least 4.8 years. Accordingly, dementia and mild cognitive disorders, which are often a preliminary stage of dementia, were diagnosed more frequently in the lower performing seasons.

The researchers also found larger quantities of certain proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease in the nerve water in winter and spring. In addition, the activity of the previously known genes involved in Alzheimer's disease was increased.

Weak working memory

The performance losses were particularly noticeable in working memory, which is necessary for many tasks. It enables various information units to be kept ready at the same time for a short time. This is necessary for tasks such as mental arithmetic, but also when driving a car while talking or having a conversation where you remember what the other person said in order to answer appropriately. When working memory is impaired, such activities become more strenuous - one cannot concentrate for long.

Do daylight and temperature play a role?

There are many possible explanations why thinking is harder in winter and spring. Light and temperature could play a role here. "If this is confirmed, then measures such as light therapy could support the performance of the brain all year round," the authors write.

Lifestyle changes with the seasons

Factors such as physical activity, sleeping habits and diet also change with the seasons and could affect memory performance. These had been queried as part of the studies, but had not revealed any influence. However, they were not recorded systematically. They were based solely on the participants' memories, which is fundamentally problematic as such a procedure is very imprecise.

Internal clock also works in the brain

The psyche is also influenced by the seasons. Depressive moods occur more frequently in the dark months, which can also impair cognitive performance. In addition, there are factors such as the blood level of vitamin D, testosterone and melatonin, which are regulated by the internal clock depending on the seasons. “Unfortunately, we did not have any data on these measured values,” write the researchers.

In addition, the participants were only examined once a year. The researchers were therefore unable to measure any personal, seasonal fluctuations in performance - for example, whether performance actually improved measurably again after a winter low in summer. "Investigations of the same people at different times in the year, which record behavior and physiological factors, would help to identify the most important influencing factors," say the researchers.

Younger people compensate for the seasons better

The fact that previous studies on younger people did not show fluctuations in memory performance as clearly as the studies on older participants is attributable to the fact that restrictive factors are even better compensated at a young age.

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