Can red light therapy improve reaction time, memory, and mood? Learn how targeted light wavelengths can enhance cognitive function and emotional well-being.
Like any other organ, the brain is vulnerable to injury and declining function, especially with age. A balanced diet, regular exercise, and good control of blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol can help keep the brain healthier.
Brain disorders fall into three broad groups:
Mentally stimulating activities help the brain stay agile. Puzzles, math problems, or any task that demands cognitive effort may support neural plasticity—the central nervous system’s ability to adapt to aging, trauma, or environmental change—and help maintain its function.
The first placebo-controlled study of light therapy for the human brain, published in 2013, reported several benefits. Participants who received light therapy, compared with placebo, showed:
A later study treated older adults (49–90 years) at risk of cognitive decline with light therapy. Participants—some with vascular-related impairment—showed improved cognitive scores and increased resting-state power in alpha, beta, and gamma brain waves.
In a 2019 study of frontal-lobe function in elderly men, the treatment group outperformed the placebo group on cognitive tasks, suggesting that light therapy may safely support age-related cognitive health.
Research since 2017 indicates that light therapy may also enhance executive function—skills such as planning, organizing, shifting focus, and inhibiting inappropriate responses—supporting goal-directed behavior.
PubMed search for light-therapy cognitive studies
This information is educational and not a substitute for professional medical advice.
As research suggests, light therapy helped study participants perform better on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST)4. In this neurophysiological test, participants match cards without being told the rule, receiving only “correct” or “incorrect” feedback. The WCST measures cognitive flexibility—an aspect of executive function. Volunteers who received light therapy made fewer errors and showed improved set-shifting compared with controls.
These findings hint that light therapy may support executive function and could hold promise for addressing cognitive deficits linked to aging or disorders such as epilepsy, stroke, migraine, brain tumor, dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2017, researchers tested 118 adults to see whether light therapy affects learning. Participants were randomized to active or placebo groups. After therapy directed at the lateral prefrontal cortex, the active group showed faster, more accurate rule-based learning5. Picture bartenders memorizing exact cocktail recipes and sequences; improved rule-based learning would help them recall ingredients and customer preferences more efficiently.
Many events can slow learning—aging, chronic pesticide exposure, or other neurotoxins that impair neuronal mitochondria. Light therapy appears to “exercise” these mitochondria and may encourage new neural networks, acting as a form of cognitive rehabilitation6.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to memory or concentration problems, mood swings, depression, anxiety, or speech difficulties. Small studies report that light therapy might stimulate new nerve tissue and synapses in damaged areas, offering potential cognitive benefits for patients with TBI or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive disease seen after repetitive head trauma.
Further reading: PubMed Central U.S. FDA Mayo Clinic
12 ways to keep your brain young – Harvard Health
Psychomotor vigilance task – Wikipedia
Carotid intima-media thickness – RadiologyInfo
Traumatic brain injury – Mayo Clinic
What are brainwaves? – Brainworks Neurotherapy
What is CTE? – Concussion Legacy Foundation
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test – Wikipedia
Harvard: 12 ways to keep your brain young Mayo Clinic: Traumatic brain injury RadiologyInfo: Carotid intima-media thickness
