Neuroplasticity
Looking For My Next Big Thing
Monday, September 24th, 2007After helping my 75-year-old mother move out of the home where she and my father lived for 35 years, and sorting through a generation of broken toasters, no longer non-stick skillets, and 20 year-old bank statements, I’ve decided to get rid of non-essential stuff in my life.
In sorting through everything, I realized how fervently I [...]
Brain Yoga
Monday, June 18th, 2007For the last six weeks, I’ve been learning about brain plasticity theory. This has been a life-changing experience for me. Research showing that the brain can significantly change itself through learning is exciting, inspiring, and life-affirming. The promise that exercising your brain through new mental challenges can help keep Alzheimer’s disease and dementia at bay [...]
Learning and the Battle Against Alzheimer’s Disease
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007The early years are all about learning. Babies’ and toddlers’ brains are in overdrive as they learn to interpret and interact with the world around them.
When they begin attending school, children spend many hours each day learning brain-taxing skills such as math, reading, and writing.
Adolescence and early adulthood require enormous amounts of learning as well, [...]
Bad News for Multitaskers
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Increasingly, work in the knowledge economy consists of slicing eight- to 10-hour days into tiny 10-minute segments allocated to a huge number of tasks. We work for a few minutes on one item, sort and respond to a couple of e-mails, take a phone call, work for another 10 minutes on the next task, and [...]
The Ultimate Pretest
Thursday, May 24th, 2007Ever since I began reading about brain plasticity, I’ve started to sound more and more like Oprah and Dr. Phil when speaking to friends and family.
“You have the ability to change.”
“This task is only hard because your brain hasn’t made the necessary neural connections yet.”
“You aren’t doomed to be weak at something for the rest [...]
The Positive Effects of Physical Activity on Learning
Monday, May 14th, 2007In my last post on brain plasticity, I mentioned that many people may soon embrace life-long learning to maintain mental health with the same fervor in which they attempt to maintain physical fitness through exercise.
It turns out physical fitness, brain health, and learning may be closely linked. According to an article in newsweek, people who [...]
New Brain Plasticity Theory to Create a Population of Life-Long Learners
Saturday, May 5th, 2007I don’t know about you, but I’m VERY excited about the new theory of adult brain plasticity. Until recently, scientists viewed the adult brain as being hard-wired into areas responsible for different tasks. Injure an area of the brain, and the ability to do something was lost. Even more depressing, every day we age, our [...]
