The Traditional Model of Thought
For decades, the world’s foremost brain specialists taught us that upon reaching adulthood, the brain lost its plasticity, making it impossible to improve our brain performance during adulthood.For decades, the world's foremost brain specialists taught us that upon reaching adulthood, the brain lost its plasticity, making it impossible to improve mental performance during adulthood.
According to this traditional model, toward the end of adolescence each area of the brain became highly specialized and only performed a single task -- the brain's map was set in stone and each function could be accurately localized and was locked into a specific cerebral location.
This pessimistic view of the adult brain had far-reaching implications:
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So in this view, an adult's neurons have a tendency to degenerate and become less effective with the gradual onset of cell death. Thus the decline of brain function was long thought inescapable and irreversible. Happily, that has been proven outdated and wrong.
The Current Model: Neuroplasticity and Cognitive Reserve
Within the last several years, experiments in the field of neuroscience and neuropsychology have shown that the brain retains its plasticity (that is, the ability to grow), whether it's 12, 50, or 72 years old.
In 2004, Swedish researchers published a study in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience which demonstrated that brain training changes the brain's anatomy and activity; volunteers in a five-week memory-training program showed significant improvement in capacity, and MRI's revealed anatomical changes which accounted for that improvement.
In Germany, other recent studies have proven that targeted training restores brain activity and cognitive function in persons who have suffered head injuries. Through PET scans and MRI, it was learned that after patients had engaged in training, lost cognitive performance were partially recovered, injured areas in the brain were reactivated, and in certain cases they were even totally restored.
In 2006, a U.S. study of nearly 2,900 patients published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed that a short training program improved the performance of certain brain functions, effectively making the brain 10 years younger, with effects persisting even five years later.
In short, today's sophisticated medical research has provided clear proof of the adult brain's ability to improve, and the usefulness of brain-training programs to help it do so.
What Is Neuroplasticity?
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By doing brain-training activities, you can help your brain:
- Generate new neurons;
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Develop additional blood vessels to enhance oxygenation and nutrition in areas where performance has improved;
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Most importantly, generate new synapses that can process more information more quickly.
Synapses are inter-neural links, physical pathways that unite two or more neurons from different parts of the brain and enable them to communicate quickly and effectively. With training, a single neuron can multiply its synapses by several hundred -- like turning a back alley into a four-lane highway. Information travels more freely, quickly and directly, turbo-charging your mental abilities.
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