Because your brain is the single greatest information processing system in the universe it is not surprising that many focus on the mental stimulation factor in brain health. Indeed, computer-based products such as Fit Brains aim to provide important cognitive training exercises. You can challenge yourself with these mental exercises on a daily basis with the hope of improving your different cognitive or thinking abilities. Research is now providing us with information on what mentally stimulating lifestyle activities help to promote brain health or reduce risk of dementia by building brain reserve. A 2006 study by Willis and colleagues is the first to document long term positive effects of cognitive training on everyday function in older adults.
Develop your language system, learn a new language, read and write daily, and expose your brain (particularly your babies) to sign language.
We need to be proactive and treat brain health as a lifespan issue. Reports have pointed to a relationship between IQ in early life and the risk of dementia, such as Alzheimer's Diseas, in later life. Language appears to be critical to brain development and the level of sophistication of a language system in young adulthood might actually be predictive of brain health in late life.
Studies have been done on infants who were taught sign language prior to learning to speak. The infants were able to learn about 20 signs prior to being able to speak. This longitudinal study also found that the infants exposed to sign language were more articulate and had higher IQ scores by the 2nd grade compared to infants who were not exposed to sign language. Language development and higher IQ early in life appear to be related to a reduced risk of dementia later in life.
Start to play those wonderful board games again, learn a musical instrument, and tune in to the classic radio station.
Research indicates that playing board games help to reduce the risk of dementia. You probably never thought of your family game of Scrabble or Monopoly as a brain health workout. Other games such as poker, bridge, Sudoku, and the cross word puzzle may have brain health promoting effects so long as they are “novel and complex.” Once any activity becomes “rote and passive” to you the positive brain health effects have been reduced.
A relationship between classic music and learning in children has been found. It is not uncommon to observe classic music being played in some classrooms during study period or perhaps even during a test. Study time at home may be enhanced with background classic music.
Learning to play a musical instrument may get harder as you age, but your brain can learn an instrument at any age. Do not be afraid to develop that dormant part of your brain!
Read and write (use your nondominant hand) on a daily basis: the more complex the better.
Reading and writing on a daily basis is good for your brain too. These activities help with new learning thereby involving the hippocampus. The more you stimulate and massage your hippocampi the better. Try to read new material or new topics and write with the intent of expressing ideas. Remember; try to write with your non-dominant hand a few minutes a day.
Enroll in a lifelong learning program in your community or at your local University. Encourage your local school board to integrate curriculum on the basics of the human brain within the elementary school—be proactive!
Learning is a health promoting entity no different than a medication. Learning involves structural, chemical, and functional changes in your brain that can be health promoting. Lifelong learning programs are now part of the social norm with many universities sponsoring such programs. Hundreds of thousands of older adults are enrolling in university classroom work as part of their “retirement.” More older adults are developing new talents such as music and painting to the point where studies are underway to better understand the apparent relationship between creativity and advanced age. That talents emerge late in life supports neural plasticity and contradicts the traditional belief that the brain has little capacity late in life.
Indeed research indicates education is a major factor contributing to longevity and health. The actual event of learning something new involves the laying down of a new neural network that was not there before. With continued learning, the brain develops a rich network of neural associations we refer to as brain reserve. It is this brain reserve that helps to delay onset of neurodegenerative disorders such as AD (Alzheimer's Disease).
Lifelong learning does not infer a starting point in late life. In order to be proactive we need to begin very early in life. The earlier the education occurs the earlier a proactive lifestyle for brain health can be started. As we learned earlier, the types of environments we expose our brains to early in life relate to the health of our brains later in life.
There may be neurological benefits to a baby that is developing in the womb when they are read to, spoken to and exposed to classical music.
Try and take a trip or two this year to a new surrounding and enjoy the brain health benefits!
Travel has been shown to reduce the risk of dementia, or better said, to increase brain health. Consider how this behavior might be brain health promoting. You already know that the best environment for your brain is the complex and novel. When you travel away from home you are leaving a familiar surrounding and exposing your brain to a novel and complex environment. As a result, you will use your cortex to navigate and you will probably find it exciting and maybe frustrating at times. Interestingly, as you stay in that new environment you will become more familiar and comfortable. The novel and complex has become rote and passive. Everyday you travel to and from work and home and essentially do not use your cortex. Your subcortex has the mental maps of your home and neighborhood and the processing tends to be rote or subconscious. New environments are more brain health promoting. The other nice thing about travel is that you will meet new people who contribute to your enriched environment.