LEXINGTON, Ky (March 18, 2026) — For many Kentuckians, March Madness is more than just a basketball tournament — it’s a shared tradition that sparks excitement, conversation and community across generations. But could the rituals of sports fandom — filling out brackets, debating game strategy and cheering on the Cats — also benefit our brains?
Three experts from the University of Kentucky say the answer may be yes. Research shows that staying mentally, socially and emotionally engaged can help support long-term brain health. Activities tied to sports — like predicting tournament outcomes, reminiscing about past games or gathering with friends and family to watch — can stimulate memory, strengthen cognitive skills and foster meaningful social connections.
Greg Jicha, M.D., Ph.D., is a neurologist and professor in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and director of clinical trials at the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. His work focuses on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, including advancing treatments and improving care for patients and families affected by memory disorders.
Elizabeth Rhodus, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and an investigator with the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. An occupational therapist by training, her research focuses on interventions and meaningful activities that support brain health, cognitive engagement and quality of life for older adults.
Brooke Beech, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychology postdoctoral fellow with the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute, where she conducts neurocognitive evaluations to assist in diagnosis and treatment planning for neurological disorders, including dementias. Her research centers on understanding cognitive aging and helping patients and families navigate memory changes and dementia.
Q: For many Kentuckians, basketball is more than a game — it’s tradition and community. From a brain health perspective, can staying engaged in something like sports fandom offer cognitive or emotional benefits?
Jicha: Many of my patients, even in the moderate stage of Alzheimer’s disease come alive when discussing sports. Their memories of past games and players as sharp as ever, their excitement and vitality is palpable.
Rhodus: Staying engaged with any activity that brings enjoyment, such as Kentucky basketball, has unique abilities to help the brain function and thrive. Positive emotional experiences and social interaction are linked to brain health and can be neuroprotective.
Beech: Opportunities for reflection on tradition, like Kentucky basketball, is a central component of reminiscence therapy. Revisiting these fond memories can improve mood, foster connection across generations and solidify a sense of personal meaning.
Q: We often hear that staying “mentally active” is important as we age. What does that actually mean in practical terms?
Jicha: Constant mental activity, especially when things are changing so dynamically as they do in basketball (especially with our team), really turns on all the connections in the brain. This helps increase nerve growth factors that can fight back against diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Rhodus: Mentally active means that we are engaging our mind, our thinking, in ways that are out of routine or that challenge us. Predicting championship brackets, engaging in thoughtful conversations regarding the odds and testing yourself on player statistics are all great ways to stay mentally active.
Beech: I’m sure folks have heard the phrase “use it or lose it” regarding keeping our thinking skills sharp. Research shows that’s half the battle, and that a more fitting guideline is likely, “use it in new ways or lose it.” Filling out multiple brackets? Work your brain by trying to use different criteria for each one.
Q: How do activities like filling out a bracket, analyzing game strategy or following a tournament stimulate the brain?
Jicha: Filling out a bracket, analyzing game strategy or following a tournament, really strengthens our ability to connect past, present and future. These tasks are critically dependent on frontal and parietal lobe areas of the brain that can be hit hard in diseases like Alzheimer’s. Exercising these areas through your sports engagement gets the right medicine to the right places in your brain.
Rhodus: These components make the brain connect and communicate in ways that it doesn’t typically engage, unless you’re a sportscaster. This creates new pathways or uses pathways that don’t typically get used in the brain, helping the brain stay strong.
Beech: These aspects of being an engaged sports fan flex our executive functions, or types of higher-order thinking that help us set and meet goals. This includes planning and reasoning abilities, problem solving, multitasking and working memory (or our ability to hold information in mind and make sense of it). Executive functions are vulnerable to declining as we age, so maintaining active involvement in a sports fandom can keep these skills at their best.
Q: What does research tell us about cognitive stimulation and its impact on long-term brain health?
Jicha: Many studies have shown that cognitive stimulation can reduce our risk of memory decline and dementia by about one-third. This is really impressive, and it’s worth wondering that if we could get everyone to watch, engage and root for UK basketball (or engage in other mentally stimulating activities), would we be able to significantly reduce the numbers of persons that might develop Alzheimer’s disease and or related dementias?
Rhodus: Cognitive stimulation through challenging routine ways of thinking and through social interaction are two critical factors for brain health and longevity.
Beech: Cognitive stimulation builds what we call cognitive reserve, or your brain’s ability to adapt and function at its best despite challenges, damage or age-related changes. Although some experiences, like schooling, set the bar for your cognitive reserve early in life, cognitive reserve is dynamic and can be increased with continued engagement with novel, stimulating activities throughout the lifespan.
Q: Physical activity is often discussed in reducing dementia risk. Where does cognitive and social engagement fit into that picture?
Rhodus: Cognitive and social engagement are two pieces of the pie, similar to physical activity but unique in their own ways. These three, along with good nutrition are the four pillars to ultimate brain health and reducing risk of dementia. Some research in mice, though, shows us that benefits from cognitive and social engagement are the highest when paired with physical activity. The physical elements maximize overall brain health when all four pillars are present.
Beech: Regarding the benefits of social engagement, recent research has consistently shown that it’s not so much the size of your social network that matters, but the combined frequency and quality of those contacts that does the brain good.
Q: How does emotional engagement — excitement, anticipation, even disappointment — affect the brain?
Jicha: Most folks don’t realize how strongly emotions and memory are linked in the brain. Memory is not cold and logical, but rather it is part of the same limbic circuitry in the brain that guides emotions. Exercising your emotions through a close UK game may also be exercising your memory.
Rhodus: Emotions are critical in how we feel and engage with our world around us. Positive experiences that bring joy, excitement and pleasure are highly rewarding, but negative emotions can also be a powerful input for the brain and lead to resilience and growth. It’s always good to have balance to maximize the benefits.
Beech: The memory circuitry of your brain is in very close physical proximity to the emotion circuitry in your brain. In fact, they are part of the same brain system — the limbic system. When you are experiencing a strong emotion, that extra activation in your limbic system can cause that memory to be encoded with great detail. That’s why you might have especially vivid memories of a big March Madness upset — whether you were elated or disappointed.
Q: From an occupational therapy perspective, why are meaningful and socially shared activities important as we age?
Rhodus: Meaningful activities maximize neuroplasticity and brain growth regardless of our age. The more we are engaged in activities, and the more meaningful the activities are to us, the more areas of our brain become activated. Our bodies can get stronger, as well. We use more muscle fibers during meaningful activities compared to route exercises. Sweeping the floor to prepare for a basketball party at your house will work your entire body and mind.
Social interactions are critical, too, because they force our brain to work in ways that it doesn’t typically without external feedback. A conversation with someone else engages the emotional system and provides opportunity to take someone else’s perspective, all areas and ideas of how the brain works differently when we are around other people.
Q: Can routines tied to sports seasons or traditions provide structure or cognitive anchoring for older adults?
Jicha: Routines, such as those embedded in sports like basketball, whether a player or spectator, create some of our strongest memories and cognitive skills. These create a stable anchor for our lives that is extremely resistant to diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Rhodus: Traditions and any routines are always anchoring for older adults. The predictability provides a sense of safety. Routines allow for more automatic behaviors and less higher-level thinking. If someone does have cognitive impairment, they become dependent on routines to help them through the day. Routines are safe places.
Beech: The scaffolding provided by routine and tradition allows us to rely less on short-term memory and new learning, which can be more challenging in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Instead, traditions can leverage our established long-term memories and behavior patterns, which are more resistant to cognitive change.
Q: What are simple ways families can make sports viewing more interactive or cognitively engaging?
Rhodus: Trivia about the game, players or team. Friendly gambling with betting on the odds. Team loyalty with playing or singing school songs or chants. Exercises and stretching during commercial breaks. Sharing memories from childhood or when they were younger.
Q: What advice do you give families who want to help loved ones stay socially engaged but feel unsure where to start?
Jicha: The Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has developed the Brain Health Actvities Program which contains a wealth of on-line materials that provide suggestions, instructions and guidance for activities that you and others can use or adapt to increase your social engagement with your loved ones that may be developing or at risk for future memory problems. Getting started with our activities and programs should be your first “sure bet.”
Rhodus: The most important thing is to just start. Sometimes our hesitation and nervousness can be felt by the other person (emotions really are contagious). Taking a deep breath, and just starting a conversation about anything that might be neutral and maybe not dependent on memory. “…It’s a beautiful day today.” Or “The Cats sure have been playing good.” But sometimes talking isn’t always easy. In people with dementia, the speed for becoming aware of one hears can slow down and coming up with words can be difficult. Singing songs, playing music, holding hands, dancing — these are all great ways to stay engaged with someone even if they have a harder time with communication.
Q: How can families include a loved one with dementia in March Madness in a meaningful way?
Jicha: If your loved one has always been a fan, this is easy. Just get together and enjoy the game. Below are a few tips to make the interaction successful:
- Keep the crowd small enough to keep the game enjoyable without overwhelming.
- Encourage and don’t correct loved ones that may choose bracket picks you might think are not going to be successful.
- Be prepared to join in and clap and cheer if your loved one is doing so, even if the play did not go in our favor.
- Never chastise or correct, just go with the flow for an enjoyable game experience for all.
Rhodus: Ask about their memories from childhood related to playing basketball or attending games. Make an at-home hoop and ball to play pretend ball. Toss a balloon. Stand and dance to the college chants and songs. Come up with your own cheer.
Beech: Ultimately, if you are approaching catching some games as an opportunity for shared joy and connection with your loved one, you are poised for success.
Q: What are signs that an activity is stimulating versus overwhelming for someone experiencing cognitive changes?
Jicha: Common sense is your best bet here. If the event is too much, you may notice:
- Lack of interest that can result in distracting behaviors
- Increased anxiety that can manifest as disruptive behavior
If you see such behaviors, you should be prepared to have a “safe place” or quiet room where you can go with your loved one. This is important as often it is not the game, but the behavior of others around them, or the confusion of a large event that is out of the routine during the game that is the problem. Make sure you have a “safe place” located whether at home or out with others.
Rhodus: Some signs for overwhelm or overstimulation in the person with cognitive impairment can be seen in behaviors such as the person talking louder, making unwanted sounds, trying to get up and walk away, looking more pale, covering their ears.
It’s important to remember that the brain may process things slower, and it takes longer to recover. Once the person becomes overwhelmed, it could take hours for them to calm back down. If they exhibit signs of overwhelm, it’s best to remove them from the stimulation, take them to a safe, quiet space and maybe play quiet calm music or rub their hands or shoulders to help their body recover.
Q: If you could give Kentuckians one takeaway about staying mentally and socially engaged as they age, what would it be?
Rhodus: Keep cheering, stay physically active and show your spirit through meaningful activities all year round.
Beech: Keep showing up for the activities and connections that challenge you, that make you feel valued, and that bring you joy.
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