In 142 men ages 20 to 85, pilots kept steadier visuospatial scores across age than men who were not pilots

What the research found

Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition published a cross-sectional study on 8 November 2026. Anna Bonavita, Laura Piccardi, and colleagues compared 71 military and airline pilots with 71 men who were not pilots. Ages ran from 20 to 85. Pilots had a mean age of 39.69 years (standard deviation 15.11) and 17.78 years of education. The other men had a mean age of 44.54 (15.35) and 15.52 years of education. Age did not differ significantly. Education was controlled in the analyses. The DiaNe battery covered verbal memory, attention, working memory, and visuospatial scores. Pilots were slower on working-memory false alarms, which the authors read as more deliberate checking, and they scored higher on visuospatial tasks. Large effects were spatial binding (epsilon squared 0.527) and figurative positioning (0.356). Pilots also processed verbal memory faster. Age changed the group gap on working memory, sustained and selective attention, verbal-memory response times, and vista-space positioning. Pilots showed less age-related slowing. The visuospatial-binding interaction did not survive a multiple-comparison correction. Non-pilots had aging breakpoints between 41 and 69 years. Pilots stayed on a stable line across the ages in the sample. After a Benjamini-Hochberg correction, 6 of 23 comparisons remained significant, all in visuospatial scores or response times. This is one time point. It does not show that learning to fly changes a later score. DOI 10.1080/13825585.2026.2755913. Not medical advice.

Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.

Read the original at Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition