HOW TO TRAIN THE AGING BRAIN

Here's the link to an interesting article, entitled 'How to Train the Aging Brain', by Barbara Strauch, Health Editor of the New York Times.

What fascinates me most are the following findings:

"... for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own...

Teaching new facts should not be the focus of adult education... Instead, continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you “bump up against people and ideas” that are different.

In a history class, that might mean reading multiple viewpoints, and then prying open brain networks by reflecting on how what was learned has changed your view of the world...

... We need to know stuff. But we need to move beyond that and challenge our perception of the world. If you always hang around with those you agree with and read things that agree with what you already know, you’re not going to wrestle with your established brain connections...

... get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain. Do anything from learning a foreign language to taking a different route to work... "

In a nut shell, I have always believed that a little dose of cognitive dissonance works for the brain!

[The author is scheduled to release her new book, 'The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain', in April.]