The way to make your brain flexible
1. Be creative
Even a novice can come up with more than ten ways to play games, which require thinking, judgment and layout, such as guessing questions. New york Einstein Medical College: A study in February1year found that the elderly who play chess and bridge at least once a week are 50% less likely to suffer from dementia than those who don't play games.
2. Develop the ability to respond quickly
Nintendo and other electric toys and small steel balls can train quick reaction ability, and get relatively relaxed after quickly concentrating. Ristak, a professor of neurology at George Washington University, suggested playing a game of throwing paper balls during work breaks: about six feet away from the trash can, turn around with paper balls in your hand and throw them into the trash can.
3. Create new life experiences
A fixed lifestyle will stifle brain power. Katz, a neurobiologist at Duke University, encourages people to break away from convention and create new experiences in "Make Your Brain Renew". For example, choose a brand-new route to go to work and school, and search for sounds, smells and scenery on the new road; Eat in different restaurants every day, taste new flavors and diversify the sensory experience.
4. Experience the fun of self-help tour
The significance of traveling is to broaden your horizons and feel the stimulation of the new environment, so you should avoid participating in large tour groups or Chinese-speaking city tour groups when traveling abroad. Try to choose free travel or self-help travel. It's best to rent a car or take public transportation, go to the local market, stay in the seasoning or vanilla area for a while, smell the smell you've never been exposed to, chat with local people, keep your brain in the best condition and face new problems at any time. Unexpected challenges will give brain nerve cells a chance to develop new connections.
Listen to music and relax.
It is said that listening to Mozart's music in The Complete Works of Classical Music for Children Affecting Life can improve the sense of space and promote the logical development of the brain. However, Xu Qiping, a professional sound therapist with AMTA license from American Music Therapy Association, said that the so-called "Mozart effect" was the result of media out of context and market hype. The scholar who presided over the study of Mozart effect later said that the research sample was too small and the research time was too short to prove that Mozart music had long-term help to brain development.
Everyone's feelings about music are subjective. At present, there is no direct prescription in the field of music therapy The main function of music is to relieve stress and relax. Everyone has his own musical style; For autistic children, Down syndrome and other special ethnic groups, it can further improve body movements, language ability or hyperactivity.
Eating the right food can keep your brain healthy.
Foods rich in omega-3-3 fatty acids, such as avocado, rapeseed oil, linseed oil, olive oil, green leafy vegetables, tuna and trout, help brain cells to remain soft and elastic, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and strokes.
Natural antioxidants contained in fruits and vegetables can protect brain cells from free radicals and enhance memory, such as plums, raisins, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, spinach, plums, broccoli and oranges.
7. Reading is a whole brain activity.
When reading Braille, the visual cortex is driven, the hand has to turn over the book, the eyes have to move, the words in the book are converted into sounds, and the sounds are stored in the forebrain to become meanings. Reading enhances wisdom, and every word you read will stimulate related words, so it can also enhance creativity and imagination.
8. Watch babies learn new things
The steps to activate the complete sensory experience must be touching and watching, then smelling and biting.
Experts suggest that we can do the same thing by activating multiple senses, adding common senses such as smell and touch, avoiding the expected pattern of the brain and establishing a new neural connection map. For example, when you go home, close your eyes and look for the light switch. Remember where the shoes are, where the tables and chairs are, and where the room is.
When you take your child to buy food, first teach him to read the shopping list and train his reading language ability; Compare the price with him and train his computational mathematics skills; Then teach him the ability to recognize the spatial orientation of commodity decoration.
9. Exercise makes the brain young
Exercise releases endorphins, a natural antidepressant hormone, to relieve stress; Playing ball games or doing housework and other standard work can inhibit the amygdala, which is in charge of emotions, from causing trouble. Aerobic exercise will promote the body's metabolism and bring oxygen to the head. Kekongbi, a brain neuroscientist at the University of Illinois, suggested that walking fast for 15 minutes every day can keep a good physical condition and slow down the brain nerve cell loss.
10. Leave blank thinking
Mind gymnastics will not make the brain tired. Stanford University found that long-term exposure of experimental animals to stress hormones can shrink the memory and learning center of hippocampus.
Solomon, a professor of psychology at Williams College in Massachusetts, said that stress can make you unable to concentrate and your brain's memory ability will be reduced. Experts suggest that no matter how busy you are at work, remember to set aside half an hour to an hour every day to clear your mind. * * * and meditation are both good ways to relieve stress.
Exercise makes the brain more flexible.
The brain used to be an organ that researchers thought would hardly change with time, while other organs were constantly updating themselves.
After all, if the brain wants to preserve all the memories and feelings in our lives, it must remain unchanged to some extent. But in recent years, neuroscientists have found that the brain does maintain a certain plasticity, and if people exercise, the plasticity of the brain seems to be greatly improved.
Now, a new study has found that areas of the brain related to vision were once thought to be very resistant to change and also reacted strongly to short-term exercise. This discovery is exciting, and it makes you wonder what other effects exercise may have on the brain, especially in life.
The research team behind this new study copied the previous experiments on animals: they asked the subjects to wear blindfolds and let them either exercise or watch movies.
Usually, when people or animals wear blindfolds, the covered eyes will become more acute to make up for the lack of input information.
In the current study, when subjects do intermittent exercise on the exercise bike, their covered eyes become significantly sharper than those who sit still.
This shows that the brain may enter a state of enhanced plasticity to cope with physical exercise.
Why does exercise enhance the plasticity of a brain region that was previously considered inflexible? Claudia Lunghi, the author of this research report from the University of Pisa in Italy, told me that exercise seems to reduce inhibition in some cells-in other words, "it's like physical exercise releasing the brakes and stimulating plasticity." That's what she said
Lungi of the Italian National Research Council and Alessandro Sale*** did this research together.
The inhibitory neurotransmitter γ -aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the main inhibitor of neuronal activity. Therefore, if its existence is reduced by exercise or any other activity, the brain can enhance its vitality and become more plastic.
This is certainly not the first study to show that the brain is more adaptable than we thought. For example, researchers have done a lot of work to study how antidepressants can enhance the plasticity of certain areas of the brain, which is believed to be the reason why antidepressants are more effective when used together with talk therapy than when used alone.
Exercise also plays a similar role, especially in helping the hippocampus "grow" new nerve cells, which shrinks with age or depression or dementia. However, Lungi believes that it is too early to conclude that only exercise should be listed in the prescription for depression or any other disease.
She said: "Our research is even more surprising, because it shows that proper physical exercise can improve the plasticity of the visual cortex, while the visual cortex of adults is considered to lack plasticity. Therefore, the fact that non-invasive methods such as physical activity can improve the plasticity of visual cortex is particularly surprising and important. This shows that the influence of physical activity on brain plasticity is universal and very strong. " She added that it is an obvious application to use different types of exercise to help treat patients with brain injury, especially when it is "necessary to' establish' new nerve connections and circuits to recover, or in the case of pathological aging, the brain death procedure must be slowed down. Maintaining the plasticity of the brain is actually very important to prevent the pathological aging of the brain. "
Time will tell us that future exercise may be used to help the brain recover its function by improving plasticity.
Her latest plan is to study amblyopia, which is considered to be treatable only in childhood, because the brain can't recover its function as it did in childhood.
But now all this may change. "If we can combine the traditional treatment of amblyopia with physical exercise, enhance the visual plasticity of amblyopia eyes and restore the visual function of amblyopia eyes, then we will provide an opportunity for these patients."
At the same time, whether we understand all the molecular mechanisms involved or not, exercise will only benefit your body and brain.
So, if possible, walk or ride a sports bike. This may even bring more benefits to your nerve cells than science now knows.
The mystery of place names that makes the brain flexible
Everyone laughed at you for guessing the place name of Heilongjiang-Qiqihar.
Have a safe trip. Guess the place name of Liaoning-Lushun.
A Thousand Miles Gobi Guess a Hunan Place Name-Changsha
Four Seasons Bloom Guess the Place Name of Jilin-Changchun
Guess a Shandong place name-Qingdao in the oasis on the sea.
All dissolved, guess the place name of Jilin-Tonghua.
Comprehensive arrangement and speculation of geographical names in Dali, Yunnan
The background is clear. Guess a place name-Beijing