The phrase "a complex mental activity" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe tasks or processes that require significant cognitive effort, such as problem-solving or critical thinking.
Example: "Learning a new language is a complex mental activity that challenges the brain in various ways."
Alternatives: "a challenging cognitive process" or "a sophisticated mental task".
Because note-taking is a surprisingly complex mental activity.
As the science writer Philip Ball's book shows thrillingly, listening to Lady Gaga is a hugely complex mental activity.
Deception is a rather complex mental activity.
You can lower your blood pressure, perhaps through physical exercise, and mental workouts, such as crosswords and sudoku older people with a history of complex mental activity are less likely to suffer mental decline.
One study found overlapping, but distinctly different, brain activity in patients diagnosed with conversion disorder and patients asked to "fake" the same illness, in this case a limp ankle, suggesting "more complex mental activity" in patients with conversion disorder.
Since complex mental activity induces a number of central nervous system adaptations, including neuro-protective, plastic, trophic and compensatory mechanisms [ 50], multi-domain cognitive exercise may be better suited to stimulating these neuroplastic brain changes.
Our aim was to therefore assess mental activity in a cohort of healthy older individuals at baseline and compare longitudinal hippocampal and whole brain volumetric change over three years with a view to further understand the link between complex mental activity and dementia risk.
Such irritation has led a number of thoughtful people to declare that we can never achieve a truly sophisticated understanding of the biological foundation of complex mental activity.
While most of these factors play a role in prevention of a range of age-related health problems, the role of complex mental activity and cognitive reserve appears more specific to dementia.
High level of complex mental activity across the lifespan was correlated with a reduced rate of hippocampal atrophy.
