Image: Jana Leon
In Brief
- Thousands of new cells are generated in the adult brain every day, particularly in the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory.
- Within a couple of weeks, most of those newborn neurons will die, unless the animal is challenged to learn something new. Learning—especially that involving a great deal of effort—can keep these new neurons alive.
- Although the neurons do not seem to be necessary for most types of learning, they may play a role in predicting the future based on past experience. Enhancing neurogenesis might therefore help slow cognitive decline and keep healthy brains fit.
If you watch TV, read magazines or surf the Web, you have probably encountered advertisements urging you to exercise your mind. Various brain fitness programs encourage people to stay mentally limber by giving their brain a daily workout—doing everything from memorizing lists and solving puzzles to estimating the number of trees in Central Park.
It sounds a bit gimmicky, but such programs may have a real basis in neurobiology. Recent work, albeit mostly in rats, indicates that learning enhances the survival of new neurons in the adult brain. And the more engaging and challenging the problem, the greater the number of neurons that stick around. These neurons are then presumably available to aid in situations that tax the mind. It seems, then, that a mental workout can buff up the brain, much as physical exercise builds up the body.
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19 Comments
Add Commentice cream in coffee boosts my brain power !
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI use Sudoko puzzles daily to keep challenging my brain...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and certainly as adults, many of us find it painful to learn something completely new. But if we want to keep our brains in shape, it probably would not hurt to learn a new language, take up tap dancing, or tackle some fast gaming after your Wii Fit workout—and it might even help." - Good advice for Americans in general. Our typical sedentary lifestyle probably has a wide variety of implications including reducing mental health.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExercise, then learn. I like the idea. Perhaps school should start with PE, or at least a school-wide exercise program such as those in Japan. Get the brain kicking out new brain cells, then teach them something so they stick around. Sounds good to me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUSE IT OR LOSE IT
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthese comment pages help the brain exercise.
Wow I fiel smarter all ready! "FEEL" stupid feel. dumb typist.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease do an IQ test and tell us how you fare. Perhaps you are the most intelligent person on earth. Everything you write is beyond rational comprehension, perhaps I am wasting time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow about overworking and overexcercising?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKeep chellenging our brains may stick new neurons around. But in our modern day with works and exercises up to ear will surely kill more cells than the number appears. Is it right ?????
How about ovrworking and overexercising?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKeep challenging our brain may sticks new neurons around. But in our modern day with works and exercises up to ear, we will lose more neurons than we born. Is it right ?????
There was a very interesting research paper published in Nature about Alzheimer's disease.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAPP binds DR6 to trigger axon pruning and neuron death via distinct caspases, Anatoly Nikolaev, Todd McLaughlin, Dennis D. M. OLeary & Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Nature Vol 457, 19 February 2009
Basically, they seem to have discovered an alternative mechanism by which brain cells are being killed by a 'pruning' process that normally only occurs during prenatal development, but somehow gets reactivated.
It is also related to the beta-amyloid pathway, but not exactly the same protein fragment as is usually being targeted by most currently proposed treatments.
I wonder if this pathway is related to the one which kills off newly minted brain cells? And does learning somehow down-regulates it? And can treatments be developed to deliberately invoke this process? If so, then this could be a very important finding.
New brain cells excellent article I found it strange that anti depressants may boost learning . Question people I know whom consume marijuana don"t seem to be as incapable of thought as presumed they seem quite cleaver to me and after reading your article I wonder if this would fall into the sedative/antidepressant category thanks for your time cwaz@mts.net
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisnew brain cells loved the article .However I found it strange that sedatives could enhance this. Question would people whom consume pot /marijuana fall into this sedative category for they don"t seem as dumb as one might presume
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore brains, please
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for Tracey J. Shors article (March 2009) on saving new brain cells. It certainly saved a good few of mine. I now have an answer to the puzzle about all those dance steps I tried to learn. Each week I found last weeks laboriously learnt movements had been stored in brain cells that had clearly died in the meantime. What puzzled me till now was why I had stored the new information in cells destined to die that very week. It seemed so improbable, but now I can see the learning must have been so challenging that it had to be laid down in the fresh batch of neurons. But why then did these die?
I want to suggest that the very short lesson (a couple of hours) perhaps got the new neurons up and running while I practised, but by leaving them fallow during the rest of their critical four days of readiness , I left the cells open to their programmed death. I guess the cells would have been saved, the learning incorporated, if only Id kept trampling the new laid pathways. I didnt, I had other things to do. So I forgot, and forgetting may be the inbuilt response to an experience that is too fleeting. If it had been important, I wouldnt have been able to get it out my mind . There is a clear advantage in making quick responses rather than pondering all possibilities. You dont get eaten if your mind is uncluttered. Being able to forget is good.
Ive been thinking all week about how Ms. Shors ideas relate to intangibles like insight and understanding . Her own insights have relevance for how we structure the delivery of our curricula. Anecdotal evidence has long suggested that weekly inputs are wiped clean by the cacophony of thoughts and responses, and we only retain the simplest of learning. Now we have the basis of an explanation. Does our society really want obedient, non-thinking, rule following citizens! Do we really fear original thought enough to train it out? Or can we get around to teaching in longer units (three or four days) as some of us have advocated for long? Might this help develop the informed electorate we so desperately need?
Robin Frame
More brains, please
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for Tracey J. Shors article (March 2009) on saving new brain cells. It certainly saved a good few of mine. I now have an answer to the puzzle about all those dance steps I tried to learn. Each week I found last week’s laboriously learnt movements had been stored in brain cells that had clearly died in the meantime. What puzzled me till now was why I had stored the new information in cells destined to die that very week. It seemed so improbable, but now I can see the learning must have been so challenging that it had to be laid down in the fresh batch of neurons. But why then did these die?
I want to suggest that the very short lesson (a couple of hours) perhaps got the new neurons up and running while I practised, but by leaving them fallow during the rest of their critical four days of “readiness”, I left the cells open to their programmed death. I guess the cells would have been saved, the learning incorporated, if only I’d kept trampling the new laid pathways. I didn’t, I had other things to do. So I forgot, and forgetting may be the inbuilt response to an experience that is too fleeting. If it had been important, I wouldn’t have been able to “get it out my mind”. There is a clear advantage in making quick responses rather than pondering all possibilities. You don’t get eaten if your mind is uncluttered. Being able to forget is good.
I’ve been thinking all week about how Ms. Shors ideas relate to intangibles like “insight” and “understanding”. Her own insights have relevance for how we structure the delivery of our curricula. Anecdotal evidence has long suggested that weekly inputs are wiped clean by the cacophony of thoughts and responses, and we only retain the simplest of learning. Now we have the basis of an explanation. Does our society really want obedient, non-thinking, rule following citizens! Do we really fear original thought enough to train it out? Or can we get around to teaching in longer units (three or four days) as some of us have advocated for long? Might this help develop the informed electorate we so desperately need?
Robin Frame
More brains, please
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for Tracey J. Shors article (March 2009) on saving new brain cells. It certainly saved a good few of mine. I now have an answer to the puzzle about all those dance steps I tried to learn. Each week I found last week’s laboriously learnt movements had been stored in brain cells that had clearly died in the meantime. What puzzled me till now was why I had stored the new information in cells destined to die that very week. It seemed so improbable, but now I can see the learning must have been so challenging that it had to be laid down in the fresh batch of neurons. But why then did these die?
I want to suggest that the very short lesson (a couple of hours) perhaps got the new neurons up and running while I practised, but by leaving them fallow during the rest of their critical four days of “readiness”, I left the cells open to their programmed death. I guess the cells would have been saved, the learning incorporated, if only I’d kept trampling the new laid pathways. I didn’t, I had other things to do. So I forgot, and forgetting may be the inbuilt response to an experience that is too fleeting. If it had been important, I wouldn’t have been able to “get it out my mind”. There is a clear advantage in making quick responses rather than pondering all possibilities. You don’t get eaten if your mind is uncluttered. Being able to forget is good.
I’ve been thinking all week about how Ms. Shors ideas relate to intangibles like “insight” and “understanding”. Her own insights have relevance for how we structure the delivery of our curricula. Anecdotal evidence has long suggested that weekly inputs are wiped clean by the cacophony of thoughts and responses, and we only retain the simplest of learning. Now we have the basis of an explanation. Does our society really want obedient, non-thinking, rule following citizens! Do we really fear original thought enough to train it out? Or can we get around to teaching in longer units (three or four days) as some of us have advocated for long? Might this help develop the informed electorate we so desperately need?
Robin Frame
Wow, after reading the comments I think I am going to drink a bourbon or two and kill off some brain cells.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a math teacher, I am especially interested in how our approaches to learning and teaching math can be improved with our growing understanding as demonstrated by Dr. Shors' excellent article!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn our culture, somehow, it is with pride that people carry the badge of "I Suck At Math!". For something that is so important, how can we find a way to view quantitative learning as something that can be exercised just as we exercise our muscles in the gym, or our neurons on the dance floor? I would appreciate any further comments on this topic at http://www.isukatmath.com. Thanks! Jeff Wright. Professor of Mathematics at the University of San Diego.
The article shows that the modern approach to primary education based on games in the classroom is fundamentally flawed, preventing normal brain development and making learning much more difficult.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisif i don't use my brain,to learn new things,for more than 48 hours at a stretch,it starts to pain,the reason i dont know.
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