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Brain Plasticity
Reviewed By:
Louise Chang,
SOURCES: 2009 WebMD Medical Reference from Medstar Television. Elizabeth Zelinski, PhD, Gerontology/Psychology Professor, University of Southern California, USC Davis School of Gerontology, Andrus Gerontology Center, Los Angeles.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
Narrator:
Rena (REE-nah) and Maurice Wiseman have been married for 67 years and they still have plenty to talk about.
Rena Wiseman:
I live with a very intelligent man so, just to have an - a conversation with him, I have to be alert.
Narrator:
So it makes sense that when the University of Southern California needed participants to study a computerized brain fitness program, this 87-year-old eagerly signed on.
Rena Wiseman:
And I liked doing it because it was stimulating. And you didn't - I didn't even realize it would be.
Narrator:
'Brain fitness' is based on neuroplasticity – the science that suggests the brain is plastic and can physically change and rejuvee at any age.
That is, if you put it through the proper mental workout.
Elizabeth Zelinski, Ph.D.:
It's not just repeating activities over and over again, like crossword puzzles. It's doing something new, it's doing something that really challenges that seems to make the difference.
Narrator:
Program developers claim 'brain fitness' exercises boost memory by challenging the senses. For example, in one task you hear a sound…
…and click if the tone goes up or down.
Elizabeth Zelinski, Ph.D.:
OK, so that one was going up and then down.
And then that one is a little bit shorter and it's going down twice in a row.
Narrator:
There are varying degrees of difficulty. But older participants who took on the challenge improved memory and reversed their brain's age.
Elizabeth Zelinski, Ph.D.:
They were performing like people ten years younger than themselves on memory tests.
Narrator:
Some increased their ability to process information by 131 percent. And a three-month follow-up study showed the improvement stuck.
Rena Wiseman:
It's fascinating. It isn't, you don't feel as though you're being tested, it's just the fun of doing it.
Narrator:
A five-year follow up on participants is currently under way. For WebMD, I'm Sandee LaMotte.
