Aging does not always lead to loss and deterioration - it can also bring about rebirth and renewal. Ongoing research into the changing state of the older brain has revealed some refreshingly good news. Among the risk of Alzheimer's and memory loss is a bright spot - the growing recognition of neuroplasticity or the ability to develop new neurons as we age.

"There is a reason for optimism," explained Elkhonon Goldberg, professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine. As author of The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older he has found good reason to feel better about aging. Even as we get older our brain continues to produce new neurons. But these new neurons are not a free ride warns Goldberg. Growth is especially apparent in people who keep their minds continually active. And not just active with everyday tasks, but stimulated by new and different challenges. I understand this to mean that even if my day job is rocket science I still have to find another outlet for cerebral activity. Goldberg cites Einstein as a prime example. When wasn't working, he played the violin to keep his mind sharp. Golberg stresses that it's important to do things that are "different from what you do for a living, because for most of us, no matter how cognitively (challenging) our work is, it can be routine and repetitive, and we need to (exercise) other parts of the brain also."

Goldberg was inspired to study the aging brain by the changes he noticed in his own mind. He attributes his new ways of thinking to the natural shift of activity from the right brain - where new information is absorbed - to the left brain - where patterns are recognized. As he aged "laborious, grinding, focused mental computations" that were once easy to him in his 20s, were now more difficult, but he now has a "capacity for instantaneous, almost unfairly easy insight." He was tempted to call this insight "wisdom," but settled on the more scientific "pattern recognition."

[via Conscious Choice]

Image: lyrica.org