![]() If you would like to comment on this video or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. This video is part of a series produced in partnership with the European Union’s Hello Brain project, which aims to provide easy-to-understand information about the brain and brain health. But these few simple measures might give you the best possible chances of preserving your wits against the ravages of time.įor more videos subscribe to the Head Squeeze channel on YouTube. Now you can see how things are connected and you'll never forget or lose an idea. It's a natural extension of your thinking. As you shift focus from topic to topic, TheBrain moves right along with you, showing your information and all the connections you've made. ![]() Of course, nothing can guarantee health and vitality in old age. Free Download TheBrain visualizes networks of knowledge like you've never seen before. Ensuring that you regularly get a good night's sleep helps too. As can an active social life – since regular contact with other people is also thought to excite our neurons and preserve our synapses. Ideally, it is probably best to keep your brain active throughout your life, well before you begin to approach your dotage.Įxercise and a healthy diet are also thought to offer some protection against dementia. But other, more traditional activities – like learning a musical instrument or a second language – do seem to have some protective benefits, at least on short-term recall. In other words, it may be possible to train the brain to compensate for some of the neural decline that accompanies our expanding waistlines and receding hairlines.Ĭhallenging your brain could be one way of preserving your recollections – though the value of commercial brain training apps is debatable some experiments seem to show that while people may become a whizz at the games on their screen, the improvements fail to transfer to daily life. The scientists think that, by memorising the maps of London, the brain had built many more of the “synaptic connections” that allow the brain cells to communicate with each other. In 2000, a study of London taxi drivers, for instance, showed that the 4-year training of London’s 25,000 streets showed a remarkable growth in the hippocampus compared to bus drivers who early learnt a fixed number of routes. The hippocampus – the region responsible for memory and learning – was thought to weather particularly badly by the time we are 90, many of us have lost around a third of its grey matter.įortunately, recent research has shown that the brain is not concrete, but certain regions can adapt and grow. Names, words, facts and faces – nothing is spared.Īs the latest video from the Head Squeeze team describes above, mental deterioration was once thought to be an inevitable consequence of ageing, thanks to the steady erosion of our brain matter: we lose about 0.5% of our brain volume every year. Memory loss has to be one of our biggest fears.
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