About the brain, about the self....
now you're making me laugh!! 
Apparently my iPad is acting up, and there are challenges with the way it copies links. Jamie has been very patient and kindly cleaned up behind the scenes... But I'm going to have find new approaches to triple-checking link-sharing. Let me know if you think something isn't working!
interesting. Studies like that make me glad that I do digital photography, knitting and Renaissance A Capella singing.
This article is interesting because it explains what to look for when you're looking for reading matter on how memories are made and stored. If you know more about how the brain works and where the chemicals come from, you have more of an idea about how to keep everything functioning smoothly 
I also am intrigued by one researcher's comments on 'the science of forgetting'.
Good for the heart, good for the brain: even regular gardening counts as sufficient exercise to help guard against dementia!
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_157731.html
How do they know that older people who naturally tend to like to garden and/or dance are also not naturally prone to dementia?
Mem, it's about the extra time and total calorific expenditure they spent weekly or fortnightly in pursuing these 15 or so recreational activities.
Doing them means that extra neural pathways and memories are created in those people's brains. In turn, this builds up the grey and the white matter in both hemispheres of the brain, and it probably also helps plump up and deepens the crinkles.... In other words, there's so much physically there that when age physically hits the brain (when parts start to die or atrophy), there's more to take over or more left behind that might be saved.
Hope that helps.
This is really good news; it opens up a totally new line of research t'shat does make a lot of sense. My mom died of Alzheimer's which is an awful death, and the idea that it might have resulted from an infection is comforting. Yeah, there are superbugs for which we have no antibiotics, but what might be causing Alzheimer's are common, ordinary bugs. Here's the read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/health/alzheimers-disease-infection.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
I'm glad someone posted this. I read the med abstract on pubmed. Was a little reluctant to post, because of course it's still very early days in this hypothesis.
There's a theory that dementia is related to diabetes. There's a theory that you can 'cure' it through proper use of pre and probiotics early in the development of the disease. There's a theory that the tau protein rather than the beta amyloid is responsible.
My neurologist and my immunologist both feel there's something to this latest line of research, but they're being cautious.
I haven't read all of the articles so this may have been discussed, but has anyone tried Lumosity? I'm fascinated with memory and exercising the brain. My Dad and my grandfather who both lived past their 100th birthday had remarkable memories and were great problem solvers so I signed up for Lumosity and I got hooked. I dropped it eventually but I did look forward to competing with my former scores.
I don't see it advertised much anymore.
I read that practice helps one to get better at the games, but that the skill does not transfer to other areas. But I would think that the mere fact that you are focusing and learning something new would help the brain. What do you think? what have you read?
Copihue said:
I read that practice helps one to get better at the games, but that the skill does not transfer to other areas. But I would think that the mere fact that you are focusing and learning something new would help the brain. What do you think? what have you read?
Well, it tests you in different areas, memory, problem solving and ability to change topics. You do get better at the games, they encourage you to up your score. I love intense focus. I was always pestering my students about their multi-tasking. I would try to get them into the habit of delving into a topic in depth and extending their period of engagement. There was a particular game I loved with animals that would slide on and off the screen in groups. You had to remember who disappeared etc.
Now that I bring it up , I may do a bit of research and I may even give it a try again.
Has anyone else tried it?
I was part of a 'brain science' international tester group they had for years before Lumosity came out commercially. certainly fun, and certainly merit in stimulating activity.
The best stimulation comes from learning, socialising, discussing, exploring, challenging with others as part of your normal life and routine but extending that to include fresh and adventurous activities and ideas. We're made for risk and challenge, our brains crave it. So we need to feed our senses and our body chemistry a wide range of macro and micro nutrients every day (20 foods: a sandwich generally is five), a full range of visual experiences (as far and as wide as you can see not just to the edge of the room), tracking moving objects and still, colours and clear, high and low; recalling and discussing scents and sounds; dance and run, twist and bob, reach and stretch...sing. Inventing stories.
Lumosity can't replace the fullness of human experience. It can help to expand some loss of cognitive powers where you're not able to maximise your own brain stimulation. But we know now more about how it does the magic, and how we can recreate it ourselves.
Interesting that you mentioned 'sing'. @joanne, I had stopped singing. It was something I loved doing. And dancing! I realized it when I read a book called The Artist's Way. Each week there were challenges and one of the things you were often asked was to quickly make lists of 20 things you loved to do. Or 10 careers that you would have liked to pursue.
I was surprised that a few things came to mind quickly, but the last few were a struggle and when I remembered them I was stunned that I had stopped doing them.
I started singing in the car driving to work in the morning, very loudly and I noticed how wonderful I felt. I started dancing every morning and I kept adding to the list. My cats quickly learned the Texas Two Step and look out if I put on the Chieftains.
I tried to start an Artist's Way Group many years ago and I would still love to meet once a week with a group that was interested in doing it. For those who are not familiar with it, the book is not just for visual artists, or writers or musicians, but for anyone who would like to live their life more creatively. It sounds like it might help to do some of that reach and stretch, particularly of the imagination.
I sing and dance in the car on my drive to work each day!
Are you guys still placing the orange pianos in the streets for anyone to play and sing? Gathering around them is good! Getting an ad hoc corner quartet going is good, even if you're making your own stuff up! (And talk about risky!)
Playing pavement hopscotch at 50 is fun exercise, and good for balance.
There's lots of simple stuff we can do.
Interesting that this appeared in our ABC health pages today, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-28/why-we-forget-family-members-names/7455844
....and interesting that it really doesn't explain my mum's stunning ability to always call some people by the wrong name no matter how many times she met them. She was consistent in remembering the wrong name she gave them, and using it (' now, it's not Sam, is it...?'), and then sometimes remembering the letter (right or wrong, but always the same) of their name.
My mom did that too, though not with me. I assumed that it meant that she wasn't interested in anyone but herself, so she messed their name. To her it was an insignificant detail. I never took it lightly, though I never said anything. So I am interested by your response to your mom's errors, same action, but different interpretation. I think that the error means different things in different contexts. My mom was narcisistic, so I interpreted the error in light of who she was. Your mom was probably not, so you laughed. Maybe I was too harsh on her in this instance, but maybe not. She did it her whole life, even when she was young. I loved my mom dearly, but her shortcomings were long.
FWIW, I don't buy a link between diabetes and Alzheimer's. My grandfather and mother were both severely demented when they died, and neither had diabetes. Meanwhile, my FIL, who had diabetes for decades, never suffered any dementia at all. So 100% of my family experience goes against that idea.
I really do hope that singing is helpful, since that is my favorite activity. I have begun learning new motets by using YouTube videos that play the piece while showing the sheet music. This is proving to be a nice challenge and a ton of fun. I have also read that knitting is good, because you need to concentrate and follow a pattern. Fingers crossed.
My book club has taken up poetry, and it is not only enjoyable, but very challenging. We are working on metrics which appears to be similar to reading music.
Reading in Spanish is a challenge, because there is a lot of vocabulary that I don't know and learning new vocabulary is HARD. Memory is definitely not as good as when I was younger.
Doing it to rhythm and music is excellent for learning and memory it's also an ancient way of composing poetry, and an ancient 'battle' form! In many very old cultures, rivals would compete for public acclaim by composing witty short poems to a specific meter and style on a particular topic, making up new verses on the spot in response to their competitor's poems and the audience response.
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you're never too old to learn a new skill!
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_157205.html