Workouts, Neuroplasticity, & Memory

CerebroCore workouts stimulate new connections between nerve cells and may even help the brain generate new cells, developing plasticity and building up a functional reserve that provides a defense against future cell loss. The phrase “Use it or lose it” applies to muscles in our bodies as well as to neural pathways and connections in our brains. Scientists agree that mental stimulation boosts brain power.

What is Neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of the brain to create new neurons and new synapsis to improve the ability of the brain to accomplish a certain task.  That is correct – the brain has the ability to expand, develop and flourish throughout adult life!  This phenomenon is known as Neuroplasticity.

It was once believed that as we age, the connections and networks in the brain became fixed.  It was thought that once you reached a certain age, the wiring of your brain was “fixed”, much like the wiring in your house.  However, there now exists a plethora of research that says just the opposite.  It is now a well-accepted scientific principle that the brain never stops changing and adjusting.  Connections in the brain are constantly becoming stronger or weaker, depending on what circuits are being used.

How Does Neuroplasticity Work?

Neuroplasticity is activated through repetition, and it occurs whenever you learn or repeat something over and over again.  When people repeatedly practice an activity or access a memory, their neural networks—groups of neurons that fire together, creating electrochemical pathways—shape themselves according to that activity or memory. When people stop practicing new things, the brain will eventually eliminate, or “prune,” the connecting cells that formed the pathways.

Here is a great example.  In a groundbreaking study entitled “London taxi drivers and bus drivers: A structural MRI and neuropsychological analysis” published in the prestigious journal “Hippocampus”, the authors were able to prove that London taxi drivers had a larger hippocampus (the area of the brain related to navigation) than London bus drivers.

Even more exciting was that the size of the hippocampus directly correlated with the length of time that someone was a taxi driver–the longer someone drove a taxi, the larger their hippocampus.  They concluded that the reason for this was because taxicab drivers had to navigate the city streets whereas bus drivers simply followed a set route.  Because they had to repeatedly navigate, they used their hippocampus more often.  The neurons and connections responded by growing and multiplying to help facilitate the navigating process.

The London Taxicab Study provides a compelling example of the brain’s neuroplasticity, or ability to grow and transform itself as it is exposed to learning and new experiences. Having to constantly learn new routes in the city forced the taxicab drivers’ brains to create new neural pathways “in response to the need to store an increasingly detailed information.” These pathways permanently changed the structure and size of the brain.

Neuroplasticity & Memory

The key to all of this is Repetition! If you repeat an action over and over, the area of the brain that is responsible for that action gets stronger!  A great example of this is the fact that accomplished musicians have a larger auditory cortex compared with the general population.

This is because they use that area of the brain every time they play the instrument.  The more they play – the stronger that area of the brain gets.  One research study showed that the area of the brain related to playing a musical instrument was largest in professional musicians, intermediate in amateur musicians and lowest in non- musicians.  The same was true for bilinguals.  The area of the brain involved in speech was larger in people that spoke two languages than in people that spoke one language.