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Updated May 7, 2024
Dancing increases the brain’s mental flexibility — the ability to switch attention between one task and another — a skill that becomes ever more important as we age.
Dancing engages multiple regions in the brain, including sensory and motor circuits, according to a 2020 report on music from AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health. It can also improve your working memory, according to a study that followed 333 adults aged 55 and older who participated in a Latin dance program, reported in 2022 in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Partner dancing has important social benefits, too: The interactive experience of moving together promotes connectedness and strengthens the brain areas devoted to empathy, according to a study of 81 young professional dancers and nondancers published in 2022 in Human Brain Mapping.
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