Marigold.
Eight Habits that
Improve Cognitive Function
What daily habits improve brain structure and cognitive
function?
Christopher Bergland
On March 11, the New York Times published
an article about the "brain fitness business" titled,
Do Brain Workouts Work? Science Isn’t Sure. I believe the
answer is no.
Without a variety of other daily habits, these
"brain-training games" cannot stave off mental decline or
dramatically improve cognitive function.
Most of these brain-training games will have some
benefits—but it's impossible to optimize brain connectivity and maximize
neurogenesis (growth of new neurons) sitting in a chair
while playing a video game on a two-dimensional screen.
In order to give your brain a full workout, you need to
engage both hemispheres of the cerebrum,
and both hemispheres of the
cerebellum.
You can only do this by practicing, exploring, and
learning new things in the three-dimensions
of the real world—not while being sedentary in front of a
flat screen in a cyber reality.
Digital games are incapable of giving the entire
brain a full workout. These digital programs
can't really exercise the cerebellum (Latin:
"Little Brain") and, therefore, are literally only training half your
brain. These "brain-training workouts" are the equivalent of only
ever doing upper body workouts, without ever working out your lower body.
Although the cerebellum is only 10 percent of
brain volume, it houses over 50 percent of the brain's total neurons.
Neuroscientists are perplexed by this disproportionate ratio of neurons...
Whatever the cerebellum is doing to optimize brain
function and improve cognition,
it recruits a lot of neurons to do it.
Brain-Training
Games Increase Sedentary Screen Time
In the recent New York Times article, Tara
Parker-Pope concludes that, “While there is no real risk to participating in
the many unproven brain-training games available online and through
smartphones, experts say, consumers should know that the scientific jury is
still out on whether they are really boosting brain health or just
paying hundreds of dollars to get better at a game.” I slightly disagree.
I believe these programs do have a risk because they add
more sedentary screen time
to a person's day. This additional time spent on a mobile
device or computer takes away from time that people could spend: breaking a
sweat, exploring the world, interacting with friends and family, making art,
playing a musical instrument, writing, reading a novel, daydreaming, practicing mindfulness meditation,
etc.
I have written dozens of Psychology Today blog
posts about lifestyle choices and daily habits
that improve brain structure, connectivity, and cognitive
function. For this post, I did a meta-analysis of the most recent neuroscience studies
and compiled a list of habits that can improve cognitive function for people
from every generation. These eight habits can improve cognitive function
and protect against cognitive decline for a lifespan.
Eight Habits that
Improve Cognitive Function
Physical Activity
Openness to Experience
Curiosity and Creativity
Social Connections
Mindfulness Meditation
Brain-Training Games
Get Enough Sleep
Reduce Chronic Stress
Physical Activity
Last December, researchers at Boston University School of
Medicine (BUSM) discovered
more evidence that physical activity is beneficial for
brain health and cognition.
The study found
that certain hormones, which are increased during exercise,
may help improve memory. The researchers were able to
correlate blood hormone levels
from aerobic fitness, and identify positive effects on
memory function linked to exercise.
In October of 2013, researchers at Dana-Farber and
Harvard Medical School
released a study showing a specific molecule
released during endurance exercise
that improves cognition and protects the brain against
degeneration.
I wrote a post
about this called "Scientists Discover Why Exercise Makes You Smarter."
In their breakthrough discovery, scientists honed in on a
specific molecule called irisin
that is produced in the brain during endurance exercise
through a chain reaction.
Irisin is believed to have neuroprotective effects.
Researchers were also able to artificially increase the levels of irisin in the
blood which activated genes involved in learning and memory.
A 2013 study from Finland with children
investigated the link between cardiovascular fitness,
motor skills, and academic test scores. The researchers
found that first graders
with poor motor skills also had poorer reading and
arithmetic test scores.
Across the board, children with better performance in
fitness and motor skills
had higher cognitive function and scored better in
reading and arithmetic tests.
2. Openness to
Experience
A study from October 2013 titled, "The
Impact of Sustained Engagement on Cognitive Function
in Older Adults: The Synapse Project" found that
learning new and demanding skills
while maintaining an engaged social network are
key to staying sharp as we age.
The findings reveal that less demanding activities, such
as listening to classical music or simply completing word puzzles, probably
doesn’t provide noticeable benefits to an aging mind and brain. Older
adults have long been encouraged to stay active and to flex their memory and
learning
like any muscle that you have to "use it or lose
it." However, this new research indicates that
not all mind-engaging activities improve cognitive
function.
Lead researcher Denise Park of the University of Texas at
Dallas says, “It seems it is not enough
just to get out and do something—it is important to get
out and do something that is unfamiliar
and mentally challenging, and that provides broad
stimulation mentally and socially.
When you are inside your comfort zone you may be outside
of the enhancement zone."
Another study, from January 2012, found that a
training program designed to boost cognition
in older adults also increased their openness to new
experiences demonstrating for the first time that a non-drug intervention in
older adults can change a personality trait
once thought to be fixed throughout a person's lifespan.
3. Curiosity and
Creativity
In October of 2013, a study from Michigan State
University found that childhood participation in arts and crafts
leads to innovation, patents, and increases the odds of starting a
business as an adult.
The researchers found that people who own businesses or
patents received up to eight times
more exposure to the arts as children than the general
public.
“The most interesting finding was the importance of
sustained participation in those activities,”
said Rex LaMore, director of MSU’s Center for Community
and Economic Development.
“If you started as a young child and continued in your
adult years, you’re more likely to be
an inventor as measured by the number of patents
generated, businesses formed,
or articles published. And that was something we were
surprised to discover.”
Last year, neuroscientists discovered multiple ways that
musical training improves the function
and connectivity of different brain regions and
improves cognitive function. Practicing a musical instrument increases brain
volume and strengthens communication between brain areas.
Playing an instrument changes how the brain interprets
and integrates a wide range of sensory information, especially for those who
start before age seven.
The findings were presented at the Neuroscience 2013 conference
in San Diego.
In a press briefing Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD—who is an
expert on music, neuroimaging
and brain plasticity from Harvard Medical
School—summarized the new research
from three different presentations at the conference. He
said, "These insights suggest potential
new roles for musical training including fostering
plasticity in the brain; have strong implications
for using musical training as a tool in education;
and for treating a range of learning disabilities."
Another study published in July of 2013 found
that reading books, writing, and participating
in brain-stimulating activities at any age may preserve
memory. Neuroscientists discovered
that reading a novel can improve brain function
on a variety of levels.
This study on the brain benefits of reading fiction was
conducted at Emory University.
The study was titled, “Short- and Long-Term Effects of a
Novel on Connectivity in the Brain,"
and was published in the journal Brain Connectivity.
The researchers found that becoming engrossed in a novel
enhances connectivity in the brain
and improves brain function. Interestingly, reading
fiction was found to improve the reader's ability to put themselves in another
person’s shoes and flex the imagination in a way that is similar to the visualization an
athlete would do while mentally rehearsing a motion in sports.
"Our study suggests that exercising your brain by
taking part in activities such as these across a person's lifetime,
from childhood through old age, is important for brain health in old
age," concluded co-author Robert S. Wilson, PhD.
4. Social
Connections
In February 2014 Professor of Psychology, John Cacioppo,
from University of Chicago, presented findings which identified that
the health consequences of feeling lonely
can trigger psychological and cognitive decline.
Cacioppo's researcher found that feeling isolated from
others can: disrupt sleep,
elevate blood pressure, increase morning rises in the
stress hormone cortisol,
alter gene expression in immune cells, increase depression,
and lower overall subjective
well-being...all of these factors conspire to disrupt
optimal brain function, connectivity,
and reduce cognitive function.
5. Mindfulness
Meditation
A 2013 pilot study by researchers at Harvard's
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
identified that the brain changes associated with
meditation and subsequent stress reduction
may play an important role in slowing the progression of
age-related cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease and other
dementias.
First author Rebecca Erwin Wells, MD, MPH, explained,
"We were particularly interested
in looking at the default mode network (DMN)—the brain
system that is engaged
when people remember past events or envision the future,
for example—and the hippocampus—the part of the brain responsible for emotions,
learning and memory—because the hippocampus
is known to atrophy as people progress toward mild
cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. We also know that as people age,
there's a high correlation between perceived stress
and Alzheimer's disease, so we wanted to know if stress
reduction through meditation
might improve cognitive reserve."
6. Brain-Training
Games
Scientists are beginning to better understand the
specific mechanisms of how patterns of electrical pulses (called “spikes”)
trigger a cascade of changes in neural circuits linked to learning and memory.
In a report published in April of 2013, researchers from Tel Aviv University
found that
"stimulant-rich" environments and problem
solving puzzles could be a contributing factor
in preventing or delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s
disease in some people.
Researchers at University of California, San Francisco
(UCSF) have created a specialized video game that may help older people boost
mental skills like handling multiple tasks at once. Dr. Adam Gazzaley of UCSF
and colleagues published their findings in the September 2013
journal Nature.
In January of 2014, researchers at Johns Hopkins
University reported that as few as 10 sessions
of cognitive training improved an older person’s
reasoning ability and speed-of-processing
for up to a decade after the intervention. If someone
received additional "booster" sessions
over the next three years, the improvements were even
more dramatic.
7. Get Enough
Sleep
Scientists have known for decades that
the brain requires sleep to consolidate learning
and memory. At the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in
San Diego in November of 2013,
sleep researchers from Brown University presented
groundbreaking new research
that helps explain the specifics of how the sleeping brain
masters a new task.
“It's an intensive activity for the brain to consolidate
learning and so the brain may benefit from sleep perhaps because more energy is
available, or because distractions and new inputs are fewer,” said study
corresponding author Yuka Sasaki, a research associate professor in Brown
University’s Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological
Sciences.
"Sleep is not just a waste of time," Yuka
Sasaki concludes. The extent of reorganization that the brain accomplishes
during sleep is suggested by the distinct roles the two brainwave oscillations
appear to play. The authors conclude “that the delta
oscillations appeared to govern
the changes in the SMA's connectivity with other areas of
the cortex,
while the fast-sigma oscillations appeared to pertain to
changes within the SMA itself.”
A February 2014 study from University of
California, San Francisco (UCSF) found
an association between poor sleep quality and reduced
gray matter volume in the brain's frontal lobe, which helps control important
processes such as working memory and executive function.
"Previous imaging studies have suggested that sleep
disturbances may be associated with
structural brain changes in certain regions of the
frontal lobe," said lead author Linda Chao, associate adjunct professor in
the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and Psychiatry at
UCSF. "The surprising thing about this study is that it suggests poor
sleep quality
is associated with reduced gray matter volume throughout
the entire frontal lobe
and also globally in the brain."
8. Reduce Chronic
Stress
Neuroscientists have discovered that
chronic stress and high levels of cortisol can damage the brain.
A wide range of recent studies have affirmed the importance of maintaining
healthy brain structure and connectivity by reducing chronic stress, which
lowers cortisol.
Neuroscientists at the University of California,
Berkeley, found that chronic stress triggers long-term changes in brain
structure and function which can lead to cognitive decline.
Their findings might explain why young people
who are exposed to chronic stress early in life
are prone to mental problems such as anxiety
and mood disorders later in life,
as well as learning difficulties.
The "stress hormone" cortisol is believed to
create a domino effect that hard-wires pathways between the hippocampus and
amygdala in a way that might create a vicious cycle
by creating a brain that becomes predisposed to be in a
constant state of fight-or-flight.
The researchers found that hardening wires, may be at the
heart of the hyper-connected circuits associated with prolonged stress. This
results in an excess of myelin—and too much white matter—in some areas of the
brain. Ideally, the brain likes to trim the fat of excess wiring through
neural pruning in order to maintain efficiency and
streamlined communication within the brain.
Chronic stress has the ability to flip a switch in stem
cells that turns them into a type of cell
that inhibits connections to the prefrontal cortex, which
would improve learning and memory,
but lays down durable scaffolding linked to anxiety,
depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Yoga has been proven to lower cortisol levels and reduce
chronic stress.
I wrote a Psychology Today post about this
titled, "Yoga Has Potent Health Benefits."
Conclusion:
Brain Fitness Programs Should Flex Every Brain Hemisphere
The secret to optimizing cognitive function can be found
in daily habits and exercises
that flex both hemispheres of the cerebrum, and both
hemispheres of the cerebellum.
The eight habits I recommend here exercise all four brain
hemispheres. If performed consistently, these habits can improve cognitive
function and protect against cognitive decline.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201403/eight-habits-improve-cognitive-function
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