Use Your Brain To Change Your Age: Secrets To L...

Memory and other cognitive changes can be frustrating, but the good news is that, thanks to decades of research, you can learn how to get your mind active. There are various strategies we can use to help maintain cognitive fitness. Here are several you might try.

A higher level of education is associated with better mental functioning in old age. Experts think that advanced education may help keep memory strong by getting a person into the habit of being mentally active. Challenging your brain with mental exercise is believed to activate processes that help maintain individual brain cells and stimulate communication among them. Many people have jobs that keep them mentally active. Pursuing a hobby, learning a new skill, volunteering or mentoring are additional ways to keep your mind sharp.

The more senses you use in learning something, the more of your brain that will be involved in retaining the memory. In one study, adults were shown a series of emotionally neutral images, each presented along with a smell. They were not asked to remember what they saw. Later, they were shown a set of images, this time without odors, and asked to indicate which they'd seen before. They had excellent recall for all odor-paired pictures, and especially for those associated with pleasant smells. Brain imaging indicated that the piriform cortex, the main odor-processing region of the brain, became active when people saw objects originally paired with odors, even though the smells were no longer present and the subjects hadn't tried to remember them. So challenge all your senses as you venture into the unfamiliar.

The brain's incredible ability to reshape itself holds true when it comes to learning and memory. You can harness the natural power of neuroplasticity to increase your cognitive abilities, enhance your ability to learn new information, and improve your memory at any age. These nine tips can show you how.

By the time you've reached adulthood, your brain has developed millions of neural pathways that help you process and recall information quickly, solve familiar problems, and execute habitual tasks with a minimum of mental effort. But if you always stick to these well-worn paths, you aren't giving your brain the stimulation it needs to keep growing and developing. You have to shake things up from time to time!

While mental exercise is important for brain health, that doesn't mean you never need to break a sweat. Physical exercise helps your brain stay sharp. It increases oxygen to your brain and reduces the risk for disorders that lead to memory loss, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Drink wine (or grape juice) in moderation. Keeping your alcohol consumption in check is key, since alcohol kills brain cells. But in moderation (around 1 glass a day for women; 2 for men), alcohol may actually improve memory and cognition. Red wine appears to be the best option, as it is rich in resveratrol, a flavonoid that boosts blood flow in the brain and reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Other resveratrol-packed options include grape juice, cranberry juice, fresh grapes and berries, and peanuts.

Involve as many senses as possible. Try to relate information to colors, textures, smells, and tastes. The physical act of rewriting information can help imprint it onto your brain. Even if you're a visual learner, read out loud what you want to remember. If you can recite it rhythmically, even better.

These preferences are reflected at a physiological level, all the way down to your central nervous system activity Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . In morning people, brain pathways are most excitable in the morning, empowering peak physical performance early in the day. In night owls, it is the opposite.

Your chronotype is largely genetic, but your age, environment, and activity level can all influence it. For example, in one study, night owls were able to shift their sleep cycle forward by as much as two hours through a handful of ordinary lifestyle changes. Over a period of three weeks, those with late chronotypes were instructed to:

Your chronotype may also shift due to age, gender, and physical changes. For example, one study found that women Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source are more likely than men to be early birds from childhood through their 20s, but are more likely than men to become night owls after age 45. The chronotypes of pregnant people Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source shift earlier during the first and second trimesters, before returning to normal during the third trimester. Having a stroke Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source may also affect your chronotype.

People change their sleep schedules for all sorts of reasons. If you need to become more of a morning person to support a new work or school schedule, help out your family, or simply because you want to, it may help to follow these tips.

A bedtime routine signals to your brain that it is time to fall asleep. This type of behavioral cue is all the more powerful when you perform the same activities in the same order, night after night, before going to bed.

Once you have adopted a regular sleep schedule, start shifting your bedtime earlier, using increments of 15 minutes. At the same time, adjust your alarms to wake up 15 minutes earlier. Make the change gradually, taking at least a few days in between each new shift.

The mind-body-soul connection is a shortcut to the happiest, healthiest, most vibrant version of you. Having a healthy mind, body, and soul can change the way you feel and impact the way you show up every day. Over time, this creates a ripple effect throughout your life.

Thyroid Panel (blood test)-Abnormal thyroid hormone levels are a common cause of anxiety, depression, forgetfulness, confusion, and lethargy. Having low thyroid levels decreases overall brain activity, which can impair your thinking, judgment, and self-control and make it very hard for you to feel good. Low thyroid functioning can make it nearly impossible to manage weight effectively. To know your thyroid levels, you need to know these figures: thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) Free T3 Free T4 Thyroid antibodies (thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin antibodies)

The Charge will change your life. Our brains are hard wired to meet specific human drives, and learning to harness and activate those drives is the secret to success and happiness. This is a smart and beautifully written book, and it will electrify your life. Get this book!

Once I was able to turn my own learning challenges around, I dedicated my life to helping people like you unleash your true genius and brainpower to learn anything faster and live a life of greater power, productivity, and purpose.

The past few years have been marked by a large number of discoveries about the learning brain. Those insights have the potential to support teachers in designing even better classroom environments to help you learn better. While understanding the brain can be helpful for teachers, this knowledge can also be beneficial for you as a student. For instance, it can encourage you to believe in your capacity to improve your own skills. Such beliefs make it more likely for you to make an effort and to make better use of supportive learning strategies [1]. In this article, we briefly present some core principles of the learning brain and suggest learning strategies inspired by neuroscience for you to try at school or at home.

Scientists have also noted that performing tests or exams can help you remember information better than studying alone [4]. For example, if you study your arithmetic tables interspersed with test periods, you will probably perform better on your final test than if you had only studied. Why The tests require that you retrieve the information from the neurons in which the information is stored, thus activating your connections and contributing to their strengthening. The point is thus to practice retrieval in an engaging way. There are different strategies that you could try at home, for example answering practice questions or using flashcards. These should improve learning more than re-reading or listening to lectures (as long as you do not flip the flashcard over before recalling the answer!). Other strategies include preparing questions to ask to a classmate or a parent as well as redoing tests or exercises. Use your imagination! What you need to remember is that first, for your neurons to strengthen their connections, you need to retrieve the information and avoid just reading or listening to the answer. Second, you should plan a way to get feedback to know whether you got something correct or incorrect. Do not be discouraged if you face challenges, this is a natural step of the learning process taking place in your brain!

Now that you know that neurons need to be activated repeatedly for learning to occur (and that it means retrieving information), you probably wonder how often you should practice. Scientists who study the learning brain observed that breaks and sleep between learning periods enhance learning and minimize forgetting [5]. It therefore seems better to retrieve often within spaced practice sessions, as opposed to a massed practice (practicing a task continuously without rest). For instance, instead of studying or doing homework for 3 h, after which you would probably feel exhausted anyway, you could separate this learning period into three 1-h periods or even into six half-an-hour periods. In short, when spacing your retrieval practice, you allow your brain to make the connections that you strengthened during your practice sessions more efficient. When you take a quick break from practicing, let us say a 20 min recess, you allow for the maintenance or replacement of the receptors on the surface of the neurons. The receptors are like electric outlets that receive the nerve impulse (electrical signals) from other neurons. Taking a break helps them work better: your neurons can thus transmit their nerve impulses more easily to other neurons. Finally, when you get a night of sleep between practice sessions, you actually benefit from a free retrieval practice session because while you sleep, your brain reactivates the connections between the neurons that you activated during the day. You could also get similar benefits from a nap. Next time you find yourself sleepy in class, you could tell your teacher that you are in fact trying to do retrieval practice! In brief, when spacing out learning, and especially retrieval practice, your brain is more activated than when you mass learn in one long session. 59ce067264

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