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The amazing fertility of the older mind
The Adaptiveness Of The Brain
- The adaptiveness of the brain, which scientists have now better understood is called Neuroplasticity.
- Studies show that brains of adults and elders can learn a new language just as a child could, provided they get the opportunity and are not inhibited towards making mistakes.
A child's brain is indeed completely raw, known as 'Tabula Rasa' and they can find it easier to master certain skills of perception, but at the same time, adults have the advantage of analysis, self-reflection and greater discipline.
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Never Too Late To Learn
The general perception is that an old brain past its prime cannot learn new things, as it cannot grasp information like a young adult.
New studies show that complex skills like reading or writing can be learned at any age, unlike previously believed.
The Adaptiveness Of The Brain
- The adaptiveness of the brain, which scientists have now better understood is called Neuroplasticity.
- Studies show that brains of adults and elders can learn a new language just as a child could, provided they get the opportunity and are not inhibited towards making mistakes.
A child's brain is indeed completely raw, known as 'Tabula Rasa' and they can find it easier to master certain skills of perception, but at the same time, adults have the advantage of analysis, self-reflection and greater discipline.
Psychological Barriers
The barrier to learning in adults may consist of preconceived notions, negativity or lack of confidence.
Older adults also underestimate the power of their own memories, reinforcing the belief that they cannot learn or remember, and making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Education has no age limit, and older adults need to break these psychological barriers to learning, leading to profound benefits and a sharper mind.
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Doodle to remember
Drawing can be a more effective memory aid than writing and rewriting. You don't actually have to be good at drawing to reap the memory benefits. It is effective because it involves multiple ways ...
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Your Body is a Clock
Around 30 to 50 percent of people sleep between the hours of 11 pm and 7 am. Another 40 percents are either slightly morning people or slightly evening people.
To understand...
Early Bird or Night Owls
The body is an orchestra of organs, each providing an essential function. In this metaphor, the circadian rhythm is the conductor. The conductor makes every neurotransmitter, every hormone, and every chemical in the body cycle with the daily rhythm.
This makes us our sleep habits unique and tailored.
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Exercises For Posture Correction
- Plank: Hold the initial push-up position, legs straight. Don’t allow your lower back to sink, and make sure you are looking down at the floor.
- Wall Angels: Lean bac...
Posture Belt
Wearing a posture belt during the first few hours of morning is good practice.
- Place the strap over your upper back and hold the ends in each hand.
- Drape each end of the strap over its respective shoulder.
- Cross the strap in the back holding one end in each hand.
- Pull the straps so that you feel it in your trapezius muscles and secure the ends at the front.
Reverse Plank Bridge
- Keep your arms straight and pull your shoulders back.
- Bring your shoulder blades together.
- Tuck your chin.
- Push your chest up and extend your spine.
- Your fingers can be pointed forward or backward.
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Muscle Memory
Our most repeated physical actions can, with continual practice, be performed automatically without any real-time awareness.
We think of those particular skills being stored in our ‘muscle ...
Types Of Memory
- Declarative (or Semantic) memory is our factual memory which stores the details like the information and figures, but not the visual, emotional or sensory details.
- Episodic Memory stores our life events, for us to be able to relive our past, complete with all the atmospheric details.
- Procedural Memory is the memory of skills, in which the brain records the sensory input from the various body parts and muscles during a particular activity, and is able to replicate the muscle application and movement.
The Primary Motor Cortex
It is the area of the brain responsible for learning new skills.
Using brain mapping tools, scientists have discovered that the more we use a certain body part, the more information about it is stored in the Primary Motor Cortex region of the brain, which alters its size and the number of connections with the other regions of the brain.
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The Science of Sleep
The average adult spends 36 % (or about one-third) of his or her life asleep.
Purpose of Sleep:
- Restoration
- Memory Consolidation
- Metabolic Health
Restoration
The first purpose of sleep is restoration.
Every day, your brain accumulates metabolic waste as it goes about its normal neural activities. Sleeping restores the brains healthy condition by removing these waste products. Accumulation of these waste products has been linked to many brain-related disorders.
Memory Consolidation
The second purpose of sleep is memory consolidation.
Sleep is crucial for memory consolidation, which is responsible for your long term memories. Insufficient or fragmented sleep can hamper your ability to remember facts and feelings/emotions.
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Brain drain
Relying on tech to “do it for you” can make us mentally lazy.
Research by University College London into the brains of trainee taxi drivers showed that those who...
Learning a new language
Speaking more than two languages has a protective effect on memory in seniors who practice foreign languages over their lifetime or at the time of the study.
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Learn A New Skill
Learning a new skill can be tough. Those of us trying to master a new language, learn a musical instrument, or take an online course, will find that when the initial enthusiasm dries up, things mov...
Make It A Challenge
Most learning techniques with lots of theory and colorful infographics do not assist in making the information stick in our minds.
There is a need for ‘desirable difficulties’ which exercise our minds and translate into long-term retention of knowledge.
A Pre-Test Quiz
.. or a Q&A session primes the brain to absorb the information afterward, and failing to answer it initially is part of the game.
The brain needs to know that it doesn’t know.
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Forgetting the First Language
While our brains are flexible and adaptable as children, we tend to start having more rigid learning and relearning skills as we grow old.
There have been some extreme cases when the mother t...
Trauma associated with a Language
One of the reasons for forgetting a language is the trauma associated with speaking a particular language: The mind recalls the bad experiences while the language is heard or spoken.
The Switch Mechanism
Once a person is able to speak two or more languages, the mind has to create a mechanism to switch between those seamlessly.
Switching a language is not like forgetting, but if there is too much back and forth, the competition starts between the two languages.
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Never stop learning
Research shows that people with more education have a greater cognitive reserve and this works as a protection in the face of mental decline.
But there's a twist to it: educated people t...
Crosswords
Cognitive activities like crossword puzzles, reading or playing music may delay memory decline among people who eventually developed dementia.
Stereotype threat
It happens when a person is in a situation where they are anxious that they may conform to a negative stereotype aimed at his or her social group.
Positive stereotypes, or success on previous memory tasks, can help combat this negativity.
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First words to learn
In English, just 300 words make up 65% of all written material. We use those words a lot, and that’s the case in every other language as well.
Use flash cards of the mo...
Learn cognates
Cognates are “true friends” of words you recognize from your native language that mean the same thing in another language.
For instance:
- Words like Action, nation, precipitation, solution, frustration, and thousands of other -tion words are spelled exactly the same in French, and you can quickly get used to the different pronunciation. Change that -tion to a -ción and you have the same words in Spanish. Italian is -zione and Portuguese is -ção.
- Many languages also have words that share a common (Greek/Latin or other) root.
- Even languages as different as Japanese can have heaps of very familiar vocabulary.
Interact in your language daily
- To hear the language consistently spoken, you can check out TuneIn.com for a vast selection of live-streamed radio from your country of choice.
- To watch the language consistently, see what’s trending on Youtube in that country right now.
- To read the language consistently, you can find cool blogs and other popular sites on Alexa’s ranking of top sites per country.
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