Mental abilities getting older

Today i discovered an excelent google tech talk presentation made by Dr. Michael Merzenich. The title of presentation was "Think faster focus better and remember more. Rewiring our brain to stay younger...". He himself is 66, and not showing any of mental regress (:. Especially i liked the presentation, and the way he got himself out in situation where the slides were missing (:.

Yea.. however. The numbers and diagrams he showed about the results of methodology he presented was just outstanding. I always was concern that when you get older, body as well as mind will loose the grip. But he prooved the opposite.

As we live in information technology era which is changing very rapidly, i was kind of woried about my living when i will be 60. Will i be able to follow? And the answer is - yes. Brain is very adaptive. And actually today's and future's information technology, wide information availability and the way we do information processing, is excelent for keeping our mind sharp all life long. But of course, chance is only half of goal. You still need to work on it.

Next, i will list 4 the things that are necessary for brain functionality.  It is a quick excerpt of more hour and a half presentation Dr. Michael Merzenich made. 
1. Food (vegetables, fruits, cropper)
2. Physical training (at least 10min a day)
3. Social activities (close friends)
4. Brain gym (games like puzzles, books, etc)

So, these four are preventive actions you need to take during your life. However when you get older with these four is not enough!!! 
The thing that really matters is - keep understand new things. As Einstain said several times while he lived - "never stop questioning". Ask your self different quiestions about everydays simple things, and try to answer. Go in details, because details is what we remeber.

The world is huge enough to keep you busy for all life long. Learn to play a music instrument. If you do play already, then pick another one. Or try to learn new language.  Try speculate in stock ecxchange. Try some of mathematics. Choose your own. Any action that requires huge amount of processing is good. Controlling your body muscles in precise manner is also a good brain activity. 

It is necesary your brain to discover new things. That you learn a thing, and understand that you just learned a new thing, and increased your performance. That is signal for brain to speed up the processing. 

It's also a good idea to take activities you have never done in your life before. Something completly different. Because with new actions you are able to learn new things more quickly. 

Below is google techtalk video "Think faster focus better and remember more. Rewiring our brain to stay younger..."


Comments

binary said…
well.. when people get older, they can do things that they "learned" (learned, trained, practised etc) while being younger - so why couldn't we teach ourselves to *learn*? ;)
30 Mar 2009, 13:34:00
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