It’s never too late. The title of a “cult” program from a few decades ago comes to mind when you think about brain and its possibilities to accept and make new experiences its own. Because the plasticity of the neurons and the connection pathways that link the areas of the central nervous system does not switch off. And the brain can respond, reprogramming itself. And accepting new challenges, responding appropriately.
It is the teaching that comes from original research conducted on singing birds, zebra diamondsof the family of finches. The study, published on Nature Communicationswas coordinated by Daniela Vallentin and Fabian Heim and was carried out by experts from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence.
From animal to man
First of all, let’s try to understand what was done in the experiment. The experts examined these birds, which manage to make truly elaborate vocalizations but following a well-established time to learn: everything is concentrated on average in the first three months of life. Afterwards, there are specific neurons that kick into action and somehow slow down future learning. The test started from this observation. Through extremely complex techniques, scientists have managed to “turn off” the activity of these neurons, thus restoring space for the possibilities of learn even after the physiological period to develop singing skills. And they saw that the chirps have changed, probably improved, with new vocalizations previously unknown. In practice, there has been an expansion of the vocal repertoire of adult animals that was previously thought impossible.
The discovery is important, also because the observations can be translated to human beings. In fact, they are there for us too stages of life (particularly by children and young people) where the brain is a real sponge capable of absorbing and make external stimuli one’s own. But one should not think that human beings’ learning windows will close at some point. And it is not certain that at a certain point everything stops for both language knowledge and social growth. But we need to understand. In short, by identifying what to do in the most critical periods, they could be found new stimuli to keep the brain young and perhaps identify further intervention windows for address neurodegenerative diseases.
A memory test
When did you start having trouble remembering?
What have you done to address these shortcomings?
Have you by any chance had physical or psychological traumas, perhaps with losses or changes in lifestyle habits?
Do you sleep soundly, and throughout the night, is it becoming a challenge?
Have you started taking new medications?
If you drink alcohol, how many glasses?
Don’t worry, it is not a real interrogation but rather some of the many questions that emerge from a questionnaire capable of help those who are starting to miss a beat on the memory front. The website of the prestigious Mayo Clinic indicates these and many other questions, remembering that they could be proposed by experts.
The objective of the test is bring attention to memory deficitskeeping in mind that as you get older, having some difficulties is normal, especially if there are mechanisms that can facilitate small deficits. This is why we need to talk about it with the doctor.
Fortunately, we don’t always talk about serious problems related to degenerative processes. But it is useful to do a “check” to see how things are going. American scholars, however, point out others aspects that need to be warned: for example, you need to be careful if your mood and behavior change suddenly without anything having happened, if you put objects out of place compared to normal, if you always repeat the same questions. Perhaps they are small signals which, linked to the decline in memory, could indicate that attention is needed.
How to stimulate the brain to remember and learn
The human brain contains at least 100 billion nerve cells, i neuronsalthough there are those who think there are many more. But what is important is not only the number of cells, but also how they are connected to each other. In fact, each neuron can be connected with 60,000 others and can collect a million data with messages that travel to each other. speed of 470 kilometers per hour. What maintains these close contacts between a cell and many other similar ones are the over one hundred billion specialized “weldings”, which in technical terms are called synapses.
In this complexity, to maintain the ability to remember and learn, some simple things can help strategies. For example, for the brain and memory to function at their best, it is important to remember that there are “messengers” of nervous signals that can help us, helping the movement of stimuli between the synapses. These are neurotransmitterssuch as acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and glutamate.
In addition, the activity of memory neurons is aided by some vitamins such as B1, B6 and B12. Between the foods egg yolk, wheat germ, nuts, milk, (B1) sea fish, cereals, bananas, soya, prunes (B6) and meat, fish and poultry (B12) can help.
Let’s not lose the ability to learn to “analyze” the steps of any fact and/or situation what happens to you.
An example: try reading a page of road signs in a road sign book. Then break the page into three portions. And stare at them for a few minutes, each one a third of the time dedicated to “memorizing” the entire page. The memory will be stronger.
In the end, watch out for stresswhich facilitates the production of cortisol, a hormone that negatively influences the memorization process. According to a study by the Institute of Endocrinology at Rockefeller University in New York, the cortisolonce in the brain, hits a fundamental station in memory, the hippocampus.
