GAMES MIND

How Learning Saves Your Brain

Your brain is ageing. From age 20, progression goes downward. It’s not that your brain stops working, it just slowly starts loosing it’s razor sharpness. Your memory becomes a little less reliable, your brain a little less flexible, and everything takes a little longer.

Do you want to do something about that? Learn to stay sharp! Learning new skills and collecting new knowledge is one of the most effective methods for strengthening your brain’s performance and health.

When you learn, you’re challenging your brain to change. Learning requires your brain to construct new communication patterns, new neural roads and highways. You’re building new brain infrastructure. Recent studies have shown remarkable differences between people who lead intellectually active lives and those who were not active. The mental stimulation can be from work and leisure activities. In one study, the group of participants, who led lives with relatively high levels of intellectual activity, had a 32 percent slower rate of mental decline. The group that was less intellectually active was 48 percent faster to fall into dementia. This is really thought provoking, because almost 50 percent of people older than 85 develop Alzheimer’s. Almost 50 percent!

A major benefit of learning is that you build your cognitive reserve. This means that you’re improving your brain’s ability to resist damage and disease. You’re essentially building brain resilience by strengthening connections and cell structures. You’re putting money in the brain bank that you can withdraw when crisis strikes.

As you were growing up you had a steep learning curve. You kept learning during your formal education years and your first years on the job market, but then what? What are you learning right now?

The ugly truth is that many of us stop actively learning when we hit our 30s. We (rightfully) start feeling entitled to enjoy the fruits of our labor, or we start feeling too busy. The unfortunate byproduct is we let learning slide out of our lives, at the expense of our brain.

The conclusion is simple! You have to stay active and keep learning new things all your life.

Start early and grow a nice fat brain pension fund, it all adds up.

EXPLORE THE NEW AND COMPLEX!

How do you maximize the positive impact of your learning activities on your brain?

A key is to maximize the challenge, to the point where it is demanding, but doable. The more it requires you to think hard, to process the new information deeply, to reflect, to think out of the box and to get outside of your comfort zone, the better. If you concentrate hard when you learn, the brain benefits are maximized.

Suggestions

Learn a new language or a musical instrument.

Begin doing sports, go dancing, try rock climbing, or learn to play football.

Most sports require a high level of concentration and coordination. It engages multiple brain functions simultaneously. Even hiking on uneven terrain requires concentration and balance, and thus trains the brain.

ENGAGE IN HIGH-LEVEL THINKING, LIKE STRATEGY AND PLANNING.

Play mind-demanding games, like chess, bridge, strategic board or video games

You activate your higher brain functions by doing activities that require strategic thinking, judging, analyzing, reflection, and focused attention. Strategy and planning don’t have to be about business; they can also be about your life, your family, and your plans for the coming year, or maybe just for next Saturday.

In summary, stimulate your brain through challenging learning. Enjoy the benefits, including a decreased likelihood of neurodegenerative disease. The new and complex strengthens your brain much more than the familiar and simple. Build your cognitive reserve and you empower yourself. Make the decision to always learn new things for the rest of your life.

In the next Brain Health article we’ll uncover why socializing is a key ingredient in brain health. Learn more at Brain-plus.com.

Sources: (Valenzuela & Sachdev, Psychological Medicine, 2006; 36:441-454). (Valenzuela & Sachdev, Psychological Medicine, 2006; 36:1065-1073).

(Wilson R, et al. JAMA, 2002; 287:742-748).