Summary
01/22
Congratulations! Nicely done! You Have Arrived to Week 18!
Looking for the link to your Zoom Classroom? At the top of this page is a tab, The Zoom Classroom. Click on it, and then scroll down to the second row with the list of classes with days and times. Click on the name of the instructor and you will be taken directly into the Zoom class.
If you were unable to attend our zoom lessons, you can watch a recorded lesson by clicking HERE
Semester Wrap-up and Registration Reminder
Congratulations team! This is our last class of the Fall 2023 semester.
We are going to take this week to review what we've been learning all semester about healthy lifestyle choices and brain health.
Fall 2023- Semester Highlights
Week One - Orientation & Introduction
This week we looked at data specific to healthy brain functioning among members of our senior community, examined a few myths about again, and were introduced to our BrainHQ exercises. The data are intended to inform and motivate us to take action. For example,
1 in 9 adults age 45 or older report confusion or memory loss
Around 30-40% of adults over 65 have the type of cognitive loss we regard as a “normal” consequence of age — a measurable (but slight) decline on memory tests; a feeling that you're not quite as sharp or as good at remembering, as you used to be (age-related cognitive impairment).
Around 10% of adults over 65 develop mild cognitive impairment, which does impact everyday living, and is a precursor of Alzheimer’s.
The prevalence of moderate to severe cognitive impairment in the total U.S. population aged 70 and over is 9.5%.
At age 70, the average American can expect 1.5 years with cognitive impairment.
Expected length of life with cognitive impairment is longer for women than men because of their longer life expectancy.
Over 20% of adults aged 60 and over suffer from a mental or neurological disorder (excluding headache disorders) and 6.6% of all disabilities among people over 60 years is attributed to mental and neurological disorders.
These disorders in older people account for 17.4% of years lived with disability.
The most common mental and neurological disorders in this age group are dementia and depression, which affect approximately 5% and 7% of the world’s older population, respectively.
More than 1 in 9 people (11.3%) age 65 years and older have Alzheimer’s dementia.
We also took a look at some commonly held myths.
Depression & loneliness are normal in older adults
Older adults need more sleep than younger people.
Older adults can’t learn.
Older adults should take it easy and avoid exercise so they don’t get injured.
If a family member has Alzheimer’s disease, others will have it, too.
It is inevitable that older people will get dementia.
Week Two - Getting Started
We began with a quick look at resiliency, or the ability to bounce back in the face of challenges.
bounce-back-ability”
the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties
a "positive adaptation" after a stressful or adverse situation
rebound from adversity as a strengthened and more resourceful person
When people are faced with an adverse condition, there are three ways in which they may approach the following situations:
Erupt with anger
Implode with overwhelming negative emotions, go numb, and become unable to react
Simply become upset about the disruptive change
Only the third approach promotes well-being. It is employed by resilient people, who become upset about the disruptive state and thus change their current pattern to cope with the issue. The first and second approaches lead people to adopt the victim role by blaming others and rejecting any coping methods even after the crisis is over. These people prefer to instinctively react, rather than respond to the situation. Those who respond to the adverse conditions by adapting tend to cope, spring back, and halt the crisis. Negative emotions involve fear, anger, anxiety, distress, helplessness, and hopelessness which decrease a person's ability to solve the problems they face and weaken a person's resiliency.
Constant fears and worries weaken people's immune systems and increase their vulnerability to illnesses.
Posit Science, the company that includes our BrainHQ exercises, has conducted a number of research studies to determine the extent to which their exercises are effective. This week we explored our BrainHQ exercises and discuss some of the research.
Great news! Our BrainHQ exercises are available to us and can help us optimize our brain health.
Week Three - Attention
We started with attention, which is the ability to process specific information. It is directly related to sensory input.
The four categories of attention include: vigilance, arousal and alertness, divided attention, and selective attention.
Attention begins with sensory input, which is then processed as the brain searches for what needs immediate attention.
Attention requires a conscious selection of focus. It requires that you extract what is important and focus on it, while ignoring other stimuli. It also requires that you avoid distractions, which can be sensory (things going on around you) or emotional (your inner thoughts).
When you are paying attention, groups of neurons are firing at once in your brain. Neurotransmitters are also regulating attention.
Attention is a skill requiring practice. Some ways to improve attention include meditation, caffeine, spending time in nature, and losing yourself in something you enjoy.
Week Four - Brain Speed
Brain speed refers to how long it takes the brain to capture information, process it, and respond.
Speed of processing declines with age, for reasons that are unclear. Possible reasons why include wear and tear of the brain, fewer neurotransmitters released as we age, a less efficient frontal lobe (which organizes and directs information), and decreased sensory input.
Conditions that can affect brain speed include diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular), smoking, a neurodegenerative illness like Alzheimer’s, head trauma, fatigue, depression or anxiety, or emotional struggles.
Slower brain processing may mean that someone loses track of information, and is not able to process complex information. There can also be problems in attention, memory, organization, language, or executive functions.
You can improve your brain speed with lifestyle choices including exercise, openness to experience, creativity and curiosity, social connections, mindfulness meditation, brain training activities, quality sleep, and reducing stress.
Week Five - Everything Memory
Like attention, memory begins with sensory input. If you ignore it, you will not commit it to memory. But by paying attention, you can begin to remember it.
Sensory memory is very short--a fraction of a second. It is, however, the gateway to short-term memory, where sensory inputs are processed.
Two other types of memory facilitate short-term memory: sensory memory (the fading copy of the stimulus) and working memory (allows you to hold that memory for a short time).
Long-term memory requires work to take in sensory input and embed it in your long-term memory.
There are two categories of long-term memory: explicit and implicit. Under each category are subcategories. Explicit (conscious or declarative) memory
Includes episodic memories (an episode of your life), and semantic memories (a fact that you learned long ago which is not related to life experiences). Implicit (unconscious or non-declarative) memory includes procedural memories (an automatic routine or skill that you have learned), and priming (one memory influences remembrance of others).
Effective use of working memory has three phases: Getting information into the short-term memory by focusing, handling the information while in short-term memory (by doing things like chunking several pieces together, practicing recalling the information, working with only small amounts of new information), then moving the information from short-term to long-term memory where it can be used for some constructive manner (discussing it, taking a test).
Working memory takes place in the hippocampus, where memories are stored, then transferred to long-term memory.
Long-term memory is improved when multiple brain systems are used to remember something.
With aging, there is little change in procedural and semantic memory. There may be some decline in episodic memory, although not as bad as originally suggested. Time of day affects memory. The best way to improve episodic memory is by complex activities such as dancing, painting, and writing.
Week Six - People Skills
People skills include understanding ourselves and moderating our responses; talking effectively and accurately; and building relationships of trust, respect, and productive interactions.
Interpersonal skills are the type of skills we use to communicate with people individually or in a group. They include things like: verbal and non-verbal communication, listening skills, negotiation, problem-solving, decision-making, and assertiveness.
Week Seven - Intelligence
There are several theories of intelligence. However, no theory has fully captured what it means to be “intelligent”.
Raymond Cattell determined that there are two categories of intelligence: crystallized (“book smart”) and fluid (“street smart”).
According to Howard Gardner, we should recognize a multidimensional approach to intelligence, with more than nine types of intelligence. They include: visual (picture smart), linguistic (story tellers), logical and mathematical (math smart), musical (good with sounds), bodily and kinesthetic (learn by moving), interpersonal (works well with others), intrapersonal (self-smart) naturalistic (nature smart), and existential (deep thinker).
There is a current push in schools to support a growth mindset. This encourages the student to learn without worrying about failing. They believe that they can improve by working hard (instead of thinking that intelligence is what it is). This is contrasted with the fixed mindset, where you don’t believe that you can get any smarter.
There are lifestyle changes that are likely to affect your intelligence including:
diet
meditation
less reliance on technology
exercise.
Week Eight - Navigation
Memory systems are at work during navigation. They include allocentric (landmarks and mental maps) and egocentric (relies on habit).
As we get older, allocentric declines, which causes us to sometimes get lost.
Our brain has an area dedicated to navigation, in which neurons position themselves in a way to determine a sense of direction, sort of a map in the brain relying on neurons firing to create the map.
The danger of using GPS is that it does not stimulate the memory system, and can actually be detrimental to the hippocampus (where memory begins).
Mind mapping is not only important in navigation, but in tasks such as remembering what belongs where, where you parked your car, and helping you to organize your thoughts.
Week Nine - Introduction to the Brain
The brain is comprised of grey matter (the cell bodies of neurons) and white matter (the myelin-covered axons that spread from the cell bodies to other neurons). The network of connections includes axon terminals and long tendrils called dendrites.
There are areas of the brain dedicated to specific tasks including vision, speech, decision-making, and more. When an area of the brain is damaged, that task will be affected.
The limbic system is the collection of nerve cells and networks that control emotions and drives.
Communication in the brain involves either chemical or electrical signals. Electrical transmissions occur when ions flow through gap junctions of pre- and post-synaptic cell membranes that are in very close proximity to each other. Chemical transmissions, the most common type, involve electrical impulses that stimulate chemical signals (neurotransmitters) that travel from one neuron to another. Chemical signal transmission is created by an impulse received from a dendrite that travels toward the cell body, then on through the axon to the axon terminal, where neurotransmitters are released into the synaptic gap and are taken up by receptors of a receiving neuron.
Week Ten - Neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages from one nerve cell to the other.
This chemical transmission process includes:
Nerve cell sends and receives messages via electrical impulses in the neuron. One neuron receives and processes a message, then sends to another neuron.
§ The messages are carried between the two neurons by neurotransmitters.
§ The neurotransmitter attaches to a special receptor on the receiving neuron.
§ Transporters are located on the sending neuron. They recycle the neurotransmitter, returning it back to the sending neuron. This shuts off the signal between neurons.
Neuromodulators are neurotransmitters that transmit from one neuron to multiple neurons. They are a result of neurotransmitters that have not been reabsorbed and remain in the brain. They play a role in overall brain chemistry and behavior, helping with memory and learning.
Neuromodulator systems include the noradrenaline system (arousal and reward), dopamine system (motor system, reward, cognition, endocrine system, and nausea), serotonin system (mood, satiety, body temperature, and sleep), cholinergic system (muscle and motor control, learning, short-term memory, arousal, and reward), acetylcholine system (selective attention), and GABA system (block nerve impulses and have pain relief qualities).
Mental disorders may be related to a lack of or excessive amount of neurotransmitters. They may also be caused from problems in uptake of neurotransmitters, reabsorption, and length of time in the synaptic gap between neurons.
Drugs can also affect neurotransmitters in a multitude of ways.
With aging, the amount of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators in our brains decreases. Brain training activities may increase these amounts.
Week Eleven - Brain Plasticity
Brain plasticity is the brain’s ability to change throughout life.
It is a physical process including the grey matter (shrinking or thickening) and the white matter connections (created, weakened, or severed).
Brain plasticity is related to changes in behavior, environment, thinking, and emotions. It can also be affected by injury and disease.
“Neurons that fire together, wire together; neurons that fire apart, wire apart.”
Not all plasticity is good. Negative brain plasticity occurs when a behavior is modified to create changes in the brain that are not beneficial. An example is a drug addict who releases excessive neurotransmitters as a result of drug use.
With plasticity, bigger is better. Our own Dr. Merzenich says, “The bigger the feat, the bigger reward; the bigger the reward, the bigger change in the brain.”
Healthy brain activities should: Teach something new, be challenging, be progressive, include multiple brain systems, be rewarding, and be novel or surprising.
Week Twelve - Nutrition for the Brain
Always a changing field, the findings below are possible changes due to diet:
Diet can affect neurotransmitters, which enhance brain function and response.
Saturated fats may reduce the molecules that support cognitive processing and increase the risk of neurological dysfunction.
Diets high in cholesterol and fat may speed up the formation of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain.
Diets like the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, and olive oil may work together to protect your memory, and may decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s.
A plant-based diet may provide a lower risk of cognitive decline.
Week Thirteen - Physical Exercise
Examples of aerobic exercise include running, jogging, brisk walking, swimming, and cycling.
Examples of strength training (sometimes referred to as resistance training) include lifting weights, doing push ups, sits ups, jumping, or heavy gardening (digging or shoveling).
Aerobic exercise and strength training benefits the brain. Some short-term effects include improvement in memory, short-term increases in cortisol, and improvements in mood (even to the point of euphoria in some cases), to name a few.
Long-term effects of aerobic exercise and strength training include neuroplasticity (increase in brain volume, particularly in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex), increased connections between neurons, increase in neurotrophic factors (which enhance neuroplasticity), emotional improvements in depression and anxiety, possible improvement in drug-seeking behavior, better scores on neuropsychological functions, and improvements in intelligence and memory.
Week Fourteen - Mental Exercise
This week’s lesson took a look at why it is so important to keep your brain challenged and mentally active, how learning can actually change the brain, and finally, ways you can challenge yourself to keep learning for the rest of your life.
Our brains need targeted, challenging tasks that will keep them working and constantly improving.
The most beneficial mental exercises involve thinking that requires significant attention, time, and effort, to push our brains to their fitness limits.
Novelty engages our brains in activities that are different, or new. Like reading a new book, visiting a new place, trying a new food, learning to play a new instrument, singing a new song, or learning a new language.
Variety holds our interest and wards off boredom. Pursue different interests to keep your brain challenged and engaged.
Constant challenge and learning encourages us to continue to work hard. We learn more from our mistakes than from our successes.
Reward encourages us to repeat challenging activities.
Progressive challenges keeps our brains working at their maximum abilities.
Our brain reorganizes itself, forms new synaptic connections, strengthens existing connections, and even grows new brain cells in response to mental challenges. (Brain plasticity)
The brain can continue learning throughout our lives and change in positive ways.
Brain speed improves through mental exercises.
Reading activates the language-processing areas of the brain and creates structure as the reader processes the information.
Reading stimulates the emotional centers of the brain, as well as other senses and makes the brain come alive with visual imagery.
The left inferior parietal cortex is larger in multilingual brains than in monolingual brains.
Humor activates many areas of the brain, including regions associated with reward and emotion. Understanding humor requires brain work.
Music enhances growth in preemies, improves learning of vocabulary in adults, and activates multiple areas of the brain.
Playing a musical instrument has been found to have a profound positive impact on several brain regions.
Dance is being studied as a pathway to enhanced learning. The brain coordinates (or “choreographs”) the body to perform complex, precise movements that express emotion and convey meaning.
Dance stimulates the growth, maintenance, and plasticity of neurons necessary for learning and memory.
Lifelong learning challenges and exercises the brain.
“Your brain doesn’t know how old it is . . . And what it wants to do is learn . . . We have the ability to shape our brains for health.”
Paul Nussbaum, president of the Brain Health Center, Pittsburgh
Week Fifteen - Stress Management
This week was all about stress.
Stress has been called by some the number one epidemic worldwide (Mellin, 2018).
We learned about stress, and what is involved in the stress response. We discussed what happens in our brain with short-term stress as well as chronic stress, and what types of conditions may occur with chronic stress.
We concluded with some practical ways to reduce stress.
Stress is a reaction that occurs when your body perceives that you are under threat. It is a necessary response for survival.
Prolonged stress increases the level of cortisol in the body, with many negative effects on the body and the brain.
Increased cortisol over prolonged periods of time may dampen the immune system and decrease the number of brain cells, affecting memory. It may also cause premature brain aging and increase the likelihood of heart attack or stroke.
Studies suggest chronic stress generates long-term changes in the brain that may predispose itself to mental illness, as well as shrinkage in parts of the brain.
With increasing stress, our brains are wired to discount factual information and rely on emotions.
Ways to reduce chronic stress include exercise, positive thinking, changing your environment, having positive social support, and getting a good night’s sleep. Deep breathing and other relaxation methods can also be effective.
Week Sixteen - Socialization
If we look at social connectedness from a brain health perspective, research seems to suggest that people who are socially engaged and have larger social networks tend to be cognitively stronger.
It seems that they are able to think more clearly, remember more, and demonstrate higher cognitive performance because many areas of the brain are stimulated by social interactions.
Socialization has a significant effect on the brain.
People who are more socially engaged and have larger social networks tend to have a higher level of cognitive function.
Studies suggest that socialization can enhance cognitive reserve.
The brain can be influenced by enriched environments, including social networks, which may produce structural and functional changes in the brain and influence neurogenesis in the hippocampus.
Research found that active social networks protect cognition and reduce the risk or delay the onset of cognitive impairment.
Harvard research suggested that those more socially connected to family, friends, and community are happier, physically healthier, and live longer than those who are less well-connected. Also, people who were more isolated than they wish were less happy, and their health declined earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declined sooner, and they lived shorter lives than those who were not lonely.
Social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being.
Week Seventeen - Emeritus Classes and Your Brain
Emeritus Classes help improve brain health. Four specific areas of interest were highlighted in our lessons this semester: Art, Music, Travel (Rediscovering San Diego), and our Literature (Reading) and Creative Writing classes. Do you remember how these classes positively affect our brain health?
Art in the Brain - Art Enhances brain function and well-being. The experience of art enhances individuals, society, and the environment. Art involves parts of the brain responsible for decision making and mental visualization, focus, reward centers, and it lowers stress.
Music for the Brain - We use music to soothe, to energize, to feel better, or to feel sadder, but that can be healing too. Neuroscience has enabled researchers to measure how music affects the brain. There are many different parts of the brain that are engaged and strengthened when we listen to or play music. The parietal and frontal lobes of the human cerebral cortex process the musical sounds and the motor cortex allows our muscles to play the instrument and also to move (or tap) to the rhythm. The amygdala produces the emotional responses to music. The auditory cortex is responsible for perceiving tones. The hippocampus records and stores the memories of music.
Travel in the Brain - Cognitive improvements from travel include: Mental stimulation, physical exercise, social interaction, emotional care, education & learning about new places and things, mindfulness, sunlight that provides Vitamin D and slows the aging of your brain, whole brain thinking improves creativity, physical coordination and heightens instincts and intuition, focus that heightens neuroplasticity, and Laughter that reduces stress and produces an overall sense of well-being.
Writing (and Reading) for the Brain - Different regions of the brain are active in the brains of novice writers during the creative process of brainstorming an idea. Vision-processing regions are active when scenes are visualized. Other regions become active during note-making. The hippocampus is also engaged when retrieving (remembering) factual information. And the front of the brain (prefrontal cortex) is engaged when holding several pieces of information at once. The brains of expert writers are engaged differently in the brain. Expert writers showed more activity in regions related to speech, suggesting that different strategies are used as writers gain experience. The novices watch their stories develop like films, while experienced writers are narrating it with an inner voice. As expertise improves, the caudate nucleus becomes more active which plays a role in the skill that comes with practice. The caudate nucleus and nearby regions start to coordinate the brain’s activity as the shift happens.
The power of the "story" - When we hear or read a story the areas of the brain associated with experiencing the story's events come to life." A description of a physical activity or movement - lights up the motor cortex. Details of physical properties, such as "hands like leather" lights up our sensory response. The brain reacts as if we were experiencing the story first hand.
The process of reading engages several cognitive processes to analyze written forms into usable information. From birth we attach sounds and visuals to meaning. Letter and word processing networks are developed to analyze and convert written words into meaning, using: the Anterior-interior front gyrus (Broca’s area), for connecting letters to sounds; the Temporoparietal (Wernicke’s gyri), which processes written words into sounds and attaches meaning to them; and the Occipitotemporal region, where familiar word forms are stored, as well as pronunciations and their meanings.
We met the Instructors of these beneficial activities and learned where and how to register for their classes. Check out the lesson page again to find these resources at: SDCESCHEDULE.COM.
BrainHQ
Brain exercises make our brainsd stronger. When you are using your brain with your full focus and concentration, you are improving your brain. You’ve now learned so many ways to do this in addition to the BrainHQ program – keep going!
Week Eighteen - Summary
This week is all about you, and your good choices. To succeed, you need to make the change. From the lesson, identify one thing that you've learned about that you are willing to incorporate into your life. It may be taking up stress reduction methods, focusing your attention, adjustments to your diet, exercise, or working on your run-away emotions. It can be something else mentioned in any of the lessons we've read this semester.
Our lesson this week included a review of the important brain-related lifestyle topics and choices we have learned about this semester through our other lessons. We hope that you enjoyed it, and celebrate all that you have learned!
