The Authentic Eclectic
Rejuvenate the Brain by Diving into New Realms of Learning
Neurons grow and new connections are formed in response to fresh stimulation
Although for many years, popular opinion was that our brains lose vast numbers of neurons as we age, research in the 21st Century has shown that brains, no matter the age, respond to enriched environments. Adults that focus their attention on new realms of learning rejuvenate their brains, generating new neurons and causing new connections to form between existing neurons.
The mistake
In the 1950s, some well-meaning neurobiologists studied the brains of people who had died at a very advanced age. Holding the premise that brains have a finite number of cells, they discovered brains that had drastically decreased in their numbers of neurons. This led them to draw the erroneous conclusion that our brains, rather than continuing to produce new cells, lose 10,000 neurons per day, every day, starting from around age 21. What was their mistake? They had studied the brains of people who had died with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of degenerative dementia.
