Researchers found that the most sexually active adults aged between 50 and 83 scored higher in tasks testing brain function

Forget doing the crossword or taking a bracing walk with the dog. People who want to keep their brain sharp as they enter their twilight years should be having sex — and the more the better.

Researchers from the universities of Coventry and Oxford have established that more frequent sexual activity is linked to higher cognitive functions in older adults.

They recruited 73 healthy people aged between 50 and 83 and asked them to fill in questionnaires on their lifestyle, including whether they engaged in sexual activity weekly, monthly or never. Thirty-seven said weekly, 26 said monthly and ten said never.

They then performed tasks to assess brain function. The most sexually active group scored on average two percentage points higher in certain tasks than