Showing posts with label Brain Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brain Fitness. Show all posts
Growing New Brain Cells - and Wiring Them Up
Not too long ago, scientists believed that adults couldn’t grow new neurons in their brain. However, work over the last several years has debunked this myth. We now know that adults continue to grow new neurons throughout life, a process called neurogenesis. Yes, new growth slows down after middle age but it continues. However, there are things you can do to help keep a higher rate of new brain cell birth, which we’ll get into in a minute.Continuing to grow new brain cells can help in a couple of ways. First, cells are mostly born into a region called the hippocampus, which is crucial for learning and memory. Maintaining neurogenesis helps maintain memory function. Second, keeping those new neurons coming seems to help with depression. The hippocampus is also crucial for stress regulation and neurogenesis is a necessary part of the way anti-depressants work. So, new brain cell birth is important for cognitive and emotional functions. We have referred to these in the past as your IQ and your EQ.It’s also been known for some time that exercise increase the rate of neurogenesis. Many studies show that lab animals who are allowed to exercise increase the rate of new neurons born into their hippocampus, relative to those animals that don’t get to exercise.Although these studies are difficult to do in humans (for technical reasons) several studies suggest that the same thing is going on. In human trials that compare groups who exercise to control groups, the exercisers consistently show improved cognitive skills and increased function of specific brain areas, including the hippocampus.A new study by Wu et al. published in the September 18th, 2008 edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology also shows that exercise may increase the connectivity of new neurons. It’s not enough to make new neurons. You also have to wire them up to other neurons to get them fully integrated into brain circuits so they can do their thing.On average, every neuron in your brain makes about 10,000 connections. It’s no good if a neuron is just sitting there talking to itself. It must become part of a network to have real value. When you learn things, you actually increase the connectivity between neurons, and that’s what’s most important.In fact, the number of connections in your brain is probably much more important than the number of brain cells when it comes to retaining cognitive function. The new study by Wu shows that exercise increases both. It increases the number of new neurons being born and the amount of branching that each new neuron forms.Neurons are shaped kind of like trees. The more branches they have, the more connections they can make. In Wu’s study, exercise increased the number and length of branches on new neurons.Finally, the most important part of the new study looked at how exercise affects the rate of new brain cell growth and amount of branching as we age. Essentially, the researchers confirmed that the rate of neurogenesis declines as we age and that exercising in early middle age has a large affect on boosting the rate of new brain cell birth. Exercising in older age also increases neurogenesis, although to a lesser degree.However, here is the interesting part. In their experiments, the sedentary rats had about the same length of neuron branches in middle age and in old age. But the exercising rats had much longer branches. In fact, the old exercisers had longer neuron branches than the younger sedentary rats. This is great news since many studies show that branch length and connectivity may be a better indicator of cognitive health than the number of new neurons born.We know that life-long learning is one way to promote more neuron branching and connectivity. Now this new study shows that exercising can also do this for older aged adult brains.The bottom line: physical exercise is a great way to keep your brain fit.
Entering the Brain Fitness Age
Growing up, I learned about Phineas Gage, the railroad construction foreman who survived an incredible accident in 1848 that shot a large iron rod through his brain, destroying the frontal lobes. Although Gage survived for another decade, his personality changed profoundly. The brain science books I read in the late 1980’s still used the over century-old example to introduce the idea that every function had a special location in the brain, and everything was hard-wired for life once you finished childhood. It turns out the hard-wired model of the brain was dead wrong, and academic opinion and dogma had led research down the wrong path for over 100 years.
Dr. Michael Merzenich, founder of Posit Science and one of the world’s leading brain scientists helped disprove the old “what you have is what you get” brain theories. In the 1980’s, Merzenich’s team developed the cochlear implant, a device that stimulates nerves in the inner ear with electrical signals that correspond to sound. With the “bionic ear”, people with profound deafness have learned to process the electrical signals and hear again. Merzenich went on to show that the brain can adapt and change based on all sorts of sensory input. How neurons wire together not only changes based on our experience with the world, but also based on our own thoughts. Posit Science applies this new knowledge of brain plasticity to brain training and brain fitness products that improve memory and processing speed to treat age-related cognitive decline.
I asked Dr. Merzenich: If I were to read just one book about the state of the art in brain science and better understand the background for Posit’s brain fitness research, what would it be? He gave me a copy of “The Brain that Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge, M.D. With compelling cases studies ranging from recovery from brain injury and stroke to overcoming learning and physical disabilities, Doidge details the radical advances in the science of brain plasticity of the past couple of decades. Now that we can measure brain activity down to the firing of individual neurons, we can see without a doubt that the substance of our thoughts changes the wiring of our brain. The experience of the world around us—what we sense, what we do, what we concentrate on—can change the brain even into old age.
Dispelling the myth that we only stand to lose our minds over time is great news, especially to baby boomers worried about memory loss and cognitive decline as they get older. With rising health care costs, an aging population, and economic uncertainty, baby boomers will be looking for brain fitness and brain training to stay productive in a highly competitive information-based global economy.
My English teacher in 7th grade used to say—to much teasing—that the brain is just like a muscle: You need to exercise it every day. It turns out she was right. The other side of brain plasticity, however, is that our brains can get set in their ways by the same principles of brain plasticity: Neurons that fire together wire together.
Dr. Merzenich described neural connections as like cow paths in a pasture. When cows continually tread the same paths over and over, the paths become ruts and the cows grow ever more fearful of treading anywhere else. Unless someone kicks the cows off the path, the ruts can become deep and permanent. Our thoughts are like the cows. We need to learn something truly new to make sure that our neurons keep growing and strengthening new connections.
Merzenich showed that the biggest changes in our brains take place when we engage in “massed practice”, or efforts that demand intense concentration over a period of time. It also helps to be unique, striking, dangerous, or emotional: When the brain sees a new idea or skill as important, the brain goes into building mode and generates millions of new connections.
What struck me most about the book was the extent to which the scientific community had impeded progress in an area so obviously vital to everyone. Rather than looking at examples like Phineas Gage as evidence that the brain can adapt and change, Gage was used as an example of the opposite. For over 100 years, the academic community refused to consider the idea of brain plasticity and refused to support, encourage, publish, or even give a fair hearing to the few scientists who challenged convention. The social network of academia was much like their outdated idea of the hard-wired brain: Set in its ways with the same cows treading the same ruts.
Luckily for us, Dr. Michael Merzenich and his peers defied their academic advisors and department heads and went on to quietly pursue brain plasticity research. Their breakthroughs and discoveries have spawned a new wave of brain research and brain training innovations that could improve the lives of millions of people for years to come.
Dr. Michael Merzenich, founder of Posit Science and one of the world’s leading brain scientists helped disprove the old “what you have is what you get” brain theories. In the 1980’s, Merzenich’s team developed the cochlear implant, a device that stimulates nerves in the inner ear with electrical signals that correspond to sound. With the “bionic ear”, people with profound deafness have learned to process the electrical signals and hear again. Merzenich went on to show that the brain can adapt and change based on all sorts of sensory input. How neurons wire together not only changes based on our experience with the world, but also based on our own thoughts. Posit Science applies this new knowledge of brain plasticity to brain training and brain fitness products that improve memory and processing speed to treat age-related cognitive decline.
I asked Dr. Merzenich: If I were to read just one book about the state of the art in brain science and better understand the background for Posit’s brain fitness research, what would it be? He gave me a copy of “The Brain that Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge, M.D. With compelling cases studies ranging from recovery from brain injury and stroke to overcoming learning and physical disabilities, Doidge details the radical advances in the science of brain plasticity of the past couple of decades. Now that we can measure brain activity down to the firing of individual neurons, we can see without a doubt that the substance of our thoughts changes the wiring of our brain. The experience of the world around us—what we sense, what we do, what we concentrate on—can change the brain even into old age.
Dispelling the myth that we only stand to lose our minds over time is great news, especially to baby boomers worried about memory loss and cognitive decline as they get older. With rising health care costs, an aging population, and economic uncertainty, baby boomers will be looking for brain fitness and brain training to stay productive in a highly competitive information-based global economy.
My English teacher in 7th grade used to say—to much teasing—that the brain is just like a muscle: You need to exercise it every day. It turns out she was right. The other side of brain plasticity, however, is that our brains can get set in their ways by the same principles of brain plasticity: Neurons that fire together wire together.
Dr. Merzenich described neural connections as like cow paths in a pasture. When cows continually tread the same paths over and over, the paths become ruts and the cows grow ever more fearful of treading anywhere else. Unless someone kicks the cows off the path, the ruts can become deep and permanent. Our thoughts are like the cows. We need to learn something truly new to make sure that our neurons keep growing and strengthening new connections.
Merzenich showed that the biggest changes in our brains take place when we engage in “massed practice”, or efforts that demand intense concentration over a period of time. It also helps to be unique, striking, dangerous, or emotional: When the brain sees a new idea or skill as important, the brain goes into building mode and generates millions of new connections.
What struck me most about the book was the extent to which the scientific community had impeded progress in an area so obviously vital to everyone. Rather than looking at examples like Phineas Gage as evidence that the brain can adapt and change, Gage was used as an example of the opposite. For over 100 years, the academic community refused to consider the idea of brain plasticity and refused to support, encourage, publish, or even give a fair hearing to the few scientists who challenged convention. The social network of academia was much like their outdated idea of the hard-wired brain: Set in its ways with the same cows treading the same ruts.
Luckily for us, Dr. Michael Merzenich and his peers defied their academic advisors and department heads and went on to quietly pursue brain plasticity research. Their breakthroughs and discoveries have spawned a new wave of brain research and brain training innovations that could improve the lives of millions of people for years to come.
Growing New Brain Cells - and Wiring Them Up
Not too long ago, scientists believed that adults couldn’t grow new neurons in their brain. However, work over the last several years has debunked this myth. We now know that adults continue to grow new neurons throughout life, a process called neurogenesis. Yes, new growth slows down after middle age but it continues. However, there are things you can do to help keep a higher rate of new brain cell birth, which we’ll get into in a minute.Continuing to grow new brain cells can help in a couple of ways. First, cells are mostly born into a region called the hippocampus, which is crucial for learning and memory. Maintaining neurogenesis helps maintain memory function. Second, keeping those new neurons coming seems to help with depression. The hippocampus is also crucial for stress regulation and neurogenesis is a necessary part of the way anti-depressants work. So, new brain cell birth is important for cognitive and emotional functions. We have referred to these in the past as your IQ and your EQ.It’s also been known for some time that exercise increase the rate of neurogenesis. Many studies show that lab animals who are allowed to exercise increase the rate of new neurons born into their hippocampus, relative to those animals that don’t get to exercise.Although these studies are difficult to do in humans (for technical reasons) several studies suggest that the same thing is going on. In human trials that compare groups who exercise to control groups, the exercisers consistently show improved cognitive skills and increased function of specific brain areas, including the hippocampus.A new study by Wu et al. published in the September 18th, 2008 edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology also shows that exercise may increase the connectivity of new neurons. It’s not enough to make new neurons. You also have to wire them up to other neurons to get them fully integrated into brain circuits so they can do their thing.On average, every neuron in your brain makes about 10,000 connections. It’s no good if a neuron is just sitting there talking to itself. It must become part of a network to have real value. When you learn things, you actually increase the connectivity between neurons, and that’s what’s most important.In fact, the number of connections in your brain is probably much more important than the number of brain cells when it comes to retaining cognitive function. The new study by Wu shows that exercise increases both. It increases the number of new neurons being born and the amount of branching that each new neuron forms.Neurons are shaped kind of like trees. The more branches they have, the more connections they can make. In Wu’s study, exercise increased the number and length of branches on new neurons.Finally, the most important part of the new study looked at how exercise affects the rate of new brain cell growth and amount of branching as we age. Essentially, the researchers confirmed that the rate of neurogenesis declines as we age and that exercising in early middle age has a large affect on boosting the rate of new brain cell birth. Exercising in older age also increases neurogenesis, although to a lesser degree.However, here is the interesting part. In their experiments, the sedentary rats had about the same length of neuron branches in middle age and in old age. But the exercising rats had much longer branches. In fact, the old exercisers had longer neuron branches than the younger sedentary rats. This is great news since many studies show that branch length and connectivity may be a better indicator of cognitive health than the number of new neurons born.We know that life-long learning is one way to promote more neuron branching and connectivity. Now this new study shows that exercising can also do this for older aged adult brains.The bottom line: physical exercise is a great way to keep your brain fit.
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