Creative Aging: Learn an Instrument!

Aging Superhero Painting by Andreas Englund

A lot of very smart people are convinced that our brains stop growing as we get older. New research is constantly being produced that contradicts this idea. Our brain’s plasticity doesn’t go away – but the nature of our modes of thinking do evolve into something different from what they were in our early years. I have now and then been frustrated in a psychology class as a professor insists that we wach have a fixed number of brain cells. Someone wrote it in a textbook, somewhere, but the theory is no longer the most accurate.

In a fascinating article on CreativeAging.org, Francine Toder, Ph.D.  speaks to just this point:

Neuroplasticity: This describes, and is responsible for, the formation of new neurons and their connectivity to one another. Contrary to what was believed until recently, the production of neurons doesn’t routinely stop occurring at any particular age. However, the older brain requires certain kinds of activities to stimulate it sufficiently. The brain is capable of positive change throughout life, but as we age, it depends to an even greater degree on being involved in activities that optimally stimulate the triad mentioned earlier: novelty, complexity and problem solving. [original article]

The entire article is worth a read, whether it is your own brain health you are thinking of, or someone else’s.

I love the Baby Boomers. I knew they would refuse to go gently into that good night…