You Can Increase Your Memory, Interest, and Learning If You Have the Right LifestyleOne of the most important things we need to remember, day to day, is that using our brain is a use it or lose it situation.
It is quite important to strengthen our brains using various activities to keep it from deteriorating. We need to continually learn new things and have new experiences to challenge our brains.
Our brains have a gene known as BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is a protein that is important in the central nervous system and vital to the learning part of our brain. Our brain can rewrite itself if we keep learning.
Once we stop learning and challenging our brain the neurons have no reason to “fire” and continue to work properly. When two neurons fire simultaneously a connection becomes stronger. This is how we learn and form our memories.
The more repetition, the more easily one action will lead to the next. When we think about something and give it our full attention we have a release of dopamine, and other chemicals, that enhance our plasticity. When a connection is no longer used a “pruning” occurs and that connection will gradually deteriorate.
If you continue to learn and form new connections your brain will produce more dopamine and BDNF. If you stop learning new things you will eventually lose the ability to learn them. However, if you repeat the same actions, and opinions, over and over again your brain will not be able to deviate from a set pathway which is why older people are seen as quite opinionated and set in their ways.
The ability to form new connections has been lost and the existing connection has been set in stone. When we are a child we constantly learn and everything is brand new and as we age it continues until we are on our career path and things begin to repeat every day. Once those tasks lose their challenge we just basically go through the motions.
Our production of dopamine and BDNF begins to deteriorate. We also stop being more active and spend a lot of time doing not much of anything. We don’t use our bodies, or brains as we did and our brains prune. That is how we become forgetful and find it difficult to engage or learn, new things.
A lot of times this is how Dementia and Alzheimer’s happens.The main thing is to keep our brains active. If we don’t they will let us know it! Doing anything to challenge ourselves such as painting, coloring, baking, sewing, drawing, reading, doing puzzles, playing chess, playing a computer game, or learning about new things will keep our brains happy.
The brain craves anything novel and the more we provide that to our brains the better it will stay at adapting, learning, and growing. Never stop challenging your brain to new tasks, even if it is sitting down and doing a crossword, or word search, puzzle. The more challenges you present to your brain the better you will be for it.