Blueberries and Prozac
Worrying about our brains is part of getting older. Am I losing it? Or did I never actually have it? They tell us that we grow a whole skullful of neurons up until about 14 years of age, and from then on we start losing them. Initially this culling process makes you smarter, but at some point you find that you can't even remember which car belongs to you in the Starbucks parking lot.
The new watchword in neurophysiology is "neuroplasticity". Brain cells can apparently reorganize themselves to meet new challenges or old neural injuries. I found it particularly encouraging when I read in several sources, including a major Scientific American article and a new book on improving brain function by Dr Restak (if I remember correctly, it is called "Think Smart", but I might be wrong) that we do in fact make new brain cells, even as aging adults. But unless these new brain cells are put to use within 2 weeks, they die off, leaving you no smarter than you were.
It turns out that bursts of new brain cells are formed in response to three different stimuli: Exercise, eating blueberries, and antidepressants. Gaining a few young neurons is enough reason to get out of bed on a rainy morning and run 5 miles. Even walking three times a week may be enough to do it. Blueberries (and strawberries and a few other colorful fruits) apparently make you smarter, even at reasonable amounts, like 1/4 cup a day. A good reason to have a few blueberry muffins after your run. And antidepressants also spur the birth of a neuron. There is some thought that Prozac and other SSRIs actually improve depression by growing back neurons in those areas most damaged by stress, rather than simply increasing serotonin levels. Stroke patients, as well as some people with peripheral nerve or spinal damage, are receiving antidepressants to help replace lost nerve cells.
This is all good news, but this is still a "use it or lose it" proposition. These cells have a short lifespan unless they are put to use, and it takes certain types of demands to make them stay around. Specifically, it appears that the brain has to perform learning that anticipates near-future events. For rats, the task was to teach them to blink exactly 1/2 second after a tone sounds, to avoid a little puff of air directed at their face. What normal activities involve this kind of anticipation? Playing video games has actually been shown to have a significant effect, especially the shoot-em-up action games. Apparently activating the survival parts of the brain primes this type of learning better than Tetris or other puzzle-type games. Fortunately, you don't have to subject yourself to 2 hours a day playing Grand Theft Auto, because playing music involves the same type of skills. We might guess that playing improvised music with a group would work best: playing jazz forces you to think quickly, look forward to anticipate the next chord change or the next accent that the drummer lays down, and draw upon many different brain areas. And sometimes that slightly panicky feeling when it is your turn to take a solo activates those fight-or-flight survival areas to sensitize the learning center.
Go to the gym, throw a handful of blueberries on your oatmeal, and go sit in with some other musicians. Maybe those new brain cells will work even better than the old ones.