What if picking up a paintbrush, dancing to music, or learning a new game could help your brain stay biologically younger? A new study in Nature Communications suggests exactly that. Creative engagement may not only elevate mood or self-expression. It may actually slow the clock on brain aging.
Researchers analyzed more than 1,400 people across dance, music, visual arts, and strategy-based gaming. Then they used EEG and machine learning to estimate each person’s “brain age gap,” a measure showing whether your brain is aging faster or slower than expected. The results were striking.
People with more creative engagement had younger brains across every domain. The deeper the expertise, the greater the delay in brain aging. And even short-term learning helped.
Let’s break down what this means for your cognitive resilience.
Creative work trains the brain the way exercise trains the body
In this study, creativity strengthened major communication networks in the brain, especially the frontoparietal systems involved in attention, planning, motor coordination, and flexible thinking. These networks often decline with age. Creative engagement helped them work more efficiently.
Experts in tango, music, drawing, and real-time strategy gaming showed delayed brain aging by about five to seven years compared to matched non-experts. Short-term video game learners showed about a three-year delay after training.
In simple terms, creativity challenges the brain in ways that build capacity, connectivity, and resilience.
Creativity is not entertainment—it is neuroprotection
We tend to treat creativity as a luxury after the “real work” is done. This research argues the opposite. Creativity is vital work for the brain. It strengthens pathways that normally weaken with age and stimulates neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and reorganize.
This effect was not tied to talent. It was tied to engagement. The more someone practiced and challenged themselves creatively, the younger their brain appeared.
Creativity is not something you have or don’t have. It is something you build.
What this means for mental health and aging
A slower brain age gap is associated with better cognitive performance, stronger attention, greater processing efficiency, and better long-term resilience. It also aligns with other lifestyle factors that support brain health, including physical activity, educational enrichment, and social engagement.
Creative activities combine many of these protective elements. They involve novelty, challenge, skill-building, and often social interaction. Creativity forces the brain to stretch, problem-solve, fine-tune coordination, and adapt in real time.
This is the kind of stimulation that supports long-term cognitive health.
How to put this science to work in your life
Here are actionable steps readers can take right away.
- Choose one creative skill and practice it daily for 10 minutes. Painting drawing, dancing, piano, digital design, photography, journaling. Small, consistent practice drives plasticity.
- Add structured learning. Experts had the biggest brain benefits because they practiced with intention and built skill over time.
- Mix movement with creativity. Dance combines rhythm, coordination, memory, and social engagement. The study showed some of the strongest effects here.
- Use gaming strategically. Real-time strategy video games that challenge attention and decision-making can also support brain plasticity.
- Protect your creative time like you protect sleep. Creativity is cognitive training. Treat it as essential.
- Pair creativity with stress reduction. Creative activities can regulate mood, lower cortisol, and increase feelings of competence.
- Make creativity social. Joining a class or creative community amplifies both enjoyment and neural benefits.
Creativity will not replace nutrition, movement, or evidence-based brain health supplements, but it complements them by training the neural networks that keep the brain sharp and adaptable.
The takeaway
Your brain thrives when you challenge it with novelty, complexity, and imagination. Creativity offers all three. Whether you are dancing, composing, sketching, or learning a strategy game, you are not just expressing yourself. You are shaping the biological age of your brain.
And that makes creativity one of the most underrated mental health tools we have.
Your next step
Choose one creative activity today and commit to 10 minutes. Building a younger, more resilient brain starts with a single session. Protect that time. Treat it like training for your cognitive future. The science is clear. Creativity does more than enrich your life. It strengthens the neural systems that help you think, focus, adapt, and age well.
Creativity Essential Reads
Your brain is always changing. Creativity helps it change in the right direction.