Creatively Aging

Traumatic brain injury rightfully captures much media attention at the moment, courtesy, in part, of the struggles of service personnel and military veterans. The New York Times today (August 9, 2009) covers this interesting and important topic on the front page in an article, Brain Power: After Injury, Fighting to Regain a Sense of Self. The insights gained as people, often young, strive to force the brain to learn anew offers an amazing story but also a lesson in the dynamic possibilities of the brain. And while it is important to emphasize that these possibilities are life-long, this quotation resonates with me:

“The brain is ‘plastic,’ recent research suggests; intact areas can recruit nearby, healthy brain tissue to bypass damage and compensate for lost function.

It does not seem to happen, however, without effort; to reroute signal traffic down back channels, the brain needs traffic, scientists say. It needs to be active, solving problems, meeting social expectations.”

This is brain fitness in another guise! This is one of the main points to active, successful, healthy, and creative aging!  The author goes on:

“In studies of dementia, researchers have found that some people who are lucid until a very old age have brains that appear riddled with Alzheimer’s disease. Many of them remain social to the end, engaged in regular card games or debates with friends who make mental demands of them.”

This is it! This is the power of “enriched environments”, to borrow a phrase from the Living Well with Memory Loss conference I attended last week.