4 Myths About the Brain and Aging

When I give talks about brain fitness, I often start off by telling the audience that it wasn’t that long ago that all of us in professional schools were taught that we are all born with a certain number of brain cells and that they start dying off as soon as we are born.

Then I talk about the exciting research in the past few decades that shows that new nerve cells can grow in parts of the brain critical for learning and memory. Instead of relentless decline toward death, the reality may be a continuing cycle of change and renewal throughout life.

That has led me to think of 4 particularly important myths about the brain and aging:

• The number one myth is that brain aging is strictly a biological process that is controlled by a person’s genetic makeup and that can’t be affected. The brain, like the rest of the body, is an organ that exists in a dynamic relation with the environment. The brain is affected, for better or worse, by what see, hear, think, and do, as well as by diet, exercise, stress, and sleep.
• Another myth that arises from the number one myth is the idea that there’s nothing we can do about age-related changes in how our brain function. Although the study of interventions to affect cognitive aging is still new, the evidence is pretty clear that exercise, diet, and mental and social activity can have potent effects on how your brain ages.
• As much as I enjoy crossword puzzles, I think one of the most pernicious myths about brain aging is the idea that simply doing intellectually-stimulating activities is enough. A related myth is that simply completing a course of computer-based cognitive training will take care of age-related changes. Although there’s even less hard data on combinations of treatment, the most successful interventions are multifactorial and include lifestyle changes as well as mentally stimulating activities.
• Finally, one of the most important myths about the brain and aging is that all changes in the brain and mental functioning are bad. An important line of research in cognitive aging shows that some mental functions are better or different with age. Older persons, for example, may make decisions better. They may be better able to discern patterns in a difficult situation, and may have superior knowledge about people and how they react.

The First Step: Beginning a Brain Fitness Program

If you read articles on the Internet about brain fitness, it can be confusing. The most money and best ads advertise computer-based training (either expensive software or monthly charges). The best scientific research supports the exercise and diet. If you want to start a brain fitness program, what’s your first step?

Decide on a goal. What do you want to get out of a brain fitness program? Fewer memory lapses, keeping yourself at the top of your class, or being faster on a computer game?

Decide on a strategy. Most studies show that what you train should be similar to what you want to get better at. If you want fewer memory lapses. focus on attention and repetition – strategies to ensure that you take in information and encode it. If you want to stay at (or get to) the top of your class in school, decide on what you need to do to get or stay there. Is it more studying, more effective concentration, or learning something that is a prerequisite to what you’re doing now? And if you want to be faster than your friends on a computer game, there’s only one sure strategy: practice.

Decide how to stick with your strategy. The world is full of people who start fitness programs, but has fewer people who actually stick with a fitness program. The key to developing greater brain fitness is to stick with your plan.

You should make your plan do-able, and you choose what you want to do so that it fits easily into your life. If you’re busy with a job and family, it’s probably unrealistic to start out exercising two hours a day. First, find 10 minutes a day for a brain fitness activity.
You can always add on later, but getting in the habit of doing something every day may be the single most important thing you can do to get started and keep going. Finally, make sure that your initial goals are not only realistic but are actually easy for you.

Getting in the habit of setting goals and achieving them will help you keep going when things get harder.