The human brain tends to grow structurally less complex as people age. Slowing the natural process of brain decline isn’t easy. But research confirms that certain activities do an excellent job of offsetting the effects of aging. In later years, these same activities have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of dementia.
So, what are these age-defying activities? Hold onto your binoculars.
Recent research in neurological science suggests that activities that stimulate the areas of the brain associated with object identification, visual processing, attention and working memory work like magic to revitalize brain connections.
Chief among these activities is the identification of flora and fauna. The effort to distinguish between flowers, birds, animal tracks, fish, rocks, mosses, or insects works to rewire the brain.
Those people who commonly identify plants and wildlife, such as birdwatchers, have the hallmarks of brains much younger than their chronological age.
If you can tell a warbler from a thrush or a white pine from a blue spruce, you are working to slow brain decline.
The more an activity requires connections between different regions of the brain, the more it contributes to cognitive reserve, the term used by neuroscientists to describe how the brain finds alternative ways to do things when pathways are damaged due to aging or injury.
Activities that stretch the brain, demanding that people use different cognitive systems or pathways, increase cognitive reserve.
Who knew birdwatching and similar activities of observation, identification and classification could be so good for you?
It’s not enough to just watch birds or enjoy the beauty of nature. To stretch the brain and keep it pliable, people must distinguish between species or types. Documenting what you observe and reviewing your collected experiences helps memory as well.
So, get outside and become an amateur naturalist to stretch your brain. Ssshh. Is that a great-tailed grackle over there?
