Want to boost your memory? Having a conversation is 'just as effective as brain-training'

Struggling to remember names and faces as you get older? Try picking up the phone and speaking to someone.

Scientists found that holding a simple conversation could be just as effective as playing popular 'brain-training' games that have spawned a multi-million pound industry.

Boost: Talking about a shared interest was found to improve memory to the same extent as 'brain-training' exercises

Researchers from the University of Zurich compared 36 studies on memory exercises conducted between 1970 and 2007.

They found some studies suggested both healthy older adults and those with mild cognitive impairment could remember words better after some memory training.

However, other research found this improvement was matched by those asked to hold a discussion about art.

'Based on published studies, it seems that alternative interventions do just as well as cognitive interventions,' said review co-author Dr Mike Martin.

The finding that social interaction could be just as effective at keeping memory loss at bay comes after Age Concern warned more than a million people aged over 65 feel trapped and isolated in their own homes.

The charity warned solitary lifestyles were a 'silent epidemic' sweeping the nation.

Dr Martin said most, although not all, people experience a cognitive decline in old age.

This can include memory loss and inability to plan, pay close attention or perform tasks as quickly as before.

The normal rate of decline seems to accelerate in some people, leading to a condition called mild cognitive impairment that some researchers see as a risk factor for developing dementia later in life.

Although several studies have suggested that brain-training exercises could delay or reverse signs of cognitive decline, the studies and the types of training 'vary considerably,' according to Dr Martin.

But he added the findings do 'not mean that longer, more intense or different interventions might not be effective, but that those which have been reported thus far have only limited effect.'

Writing in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, Dr Martin concluded researchers needed to improve how they coordinated their studies to ultimately determine ways of preventing cognitive decline in old age.