The bounce-back benefits of a more “plastic” brain
Exercising your body is essential for good health, but so is exercising your brain.
But “brain exercise” goes beyond doing a daily crossword puzzle or reading. Participating in such activities are great for your mental agility — without question — but to keep your cognitive abilities sharp, you need something that engages more parts of your brain.
When you involve your brain in new challenges, fresh neurological links are formed in an important process called neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity.
Flipping your brain’s “ON” switch
Neuroplasticity is a unique brain function that we largely take for granted.
This occurs whenever you experience something new — especially if it involves learning. — Your brain creates new connections and expertly wire them together. This has the remarkable effect of continually restructuring the way your brain shares neural signals.
(A key example of this “brain rewiring” would be someone who loses their sight early in life, which triggers enhancement in other senses, especially hearing.)
As a result, a stronger, restructured brain can increase your chances of making a full recovery or quickly bouncing back from a stroke, brain damage, or traumatic brain injury.
As you can imagine, scientists have found that when you’re 60 years old, neuroplasticity isn’t quite the same as it was when you were 6 years old.
Michael Merzenich, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor at the Keck Center for Integrative Neurosciences at the University of California, puts it this way: “During early childhood, the plasticity switch is always on, whereas in adults it’s usually off.”
This makes perfect sense of course. A young brain, learning things for the first time, is in a massive state of constant neuroplasticity and restructuring. But by the time you’re an adult, the structure is mostly set in place.
So the key is figuring out ways to keep our brains agile.
Dr. Merzenich says, “What recent research has shown is that under the right circumstances, the power of brain plasticity can help adults’ minds grow. Although certain brain machinery tends to decline with age, there are steps people can take to tap into plasticity and reinvigorate that machinery.”
And when that machinery gets a new boost, your quality of life can improve in several surprising ways.
Like an oil change for your brain
Every time you engage your brain with something new, neuroplasticity is most effective when the fresh connections are renewed again and again.
In Jim Donovan’s Sound Mind Protocol, he describes neuroplasticity this way: “When you learn any new pattern such as a language, a new route to work, a rhythm, or even dance steps, you take advantage of your brain’s ability to form new neural connections.
“Each time you repeat the new activity, you strengthen the connections between the nerve cells in your brain called neurons.
“Neuroplasticity allows your neurons to compensate for injury and disease. It also helps these nerve cells to adjust to new situations and changes in your environment.”
Using rhythm to trigger remarkable results
With a background in music, Jim has focused his new protocol on the way that rhythm can enhance neuroplasticity. He notes that repeating rhythms prompts different parts of your brain to start “talking” with each other and doing more complex things.
The more you repeat the pattern of a rhythm, he says, the deeper these new pathways get.
Jim cites a study where 24 women in their 70s participated in a weekly drumming and singing group. After three weeks, those in the drumming group were able to remember more words from a word list than the control groups. They also remembered more symbol sequences correctly.
“Learning and repeating any new pattern,” Jim says, “whether it be a drum beat or dance steps, takes advantage of your brain’s neuroplastic abilities. We also know that the more learning involves other senses — like touch, sight, and sound — the stronger these new connections between different parts of your nervous system become.”
Jim’s Sound Mind Protocol is designed to do much more than just improve learning. Using techniques Jim has been honing for many years, his approach consists of five core skills for unlocking peak brain abilities to help you in everyday life. Abilities such as:
- Shutting off anxiety in minutes
- Falling into deep restorative sleep
- Turning on your brain’s creative flow state
Jim’s unique protocol can even help activate your body’s fullest healing potential by harnessing self-made sounds and rhythms for maximum neuroplasticity effect. Click here to learn more about Jim’s Sound Mind Protocol, or to enroll today.
yourbrainhealth.com.au/what-actually-is-neuroplasticity/
What actually IS neuroplasticity?
Sarah McKay, Ph.D.
Your Brain Health
March 29, 2015