I am surprised at how frightening "Soft-Wired" by Michael Merzenich has been in the later chapters. I read "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor and that struck me sympathetically. I could understand the puzzlement and confusion a person would feel if they had a stroke that wiped out many of their mental skills and abilities. But Soft-Wired discusses aging and its associated slowings and losses. Since I am definitely in the older crowd, I must be slower and more infirm that I can feel. My hearing loss and other detectable losses make it clear that I am not immune to the results of aging. I found Merzenich's listing of things that aren't as fast or as firm or as complete or as accurate as they once were both depressing and scary.
One of his metaphors for the overall process is neglected roads. He says I can picture the major highways as still being maintained in my brain but the byways, the little pathways are getting over-grown and neglected. I guess my infrastructure is neglected and the road crews are not willing and able to do the repairs the way they used to be able to.
Prof. Merzenich is one of the main people associated with the Brain Fitness Program (BFP) of Posit Science. Lynn and I worked through the 40 hour training program about 6 years ago. We both enjoyed it and felt we benefited from the work. That program emphasized the value of doing it steadily and regularly. By the time Posit Science came out with the 2nd product, "Insight", they modified the instructions to a do-as-much-as-you-feel-like approach and I never did finish it. Both of these products were expensive. We paid over $600 for the BFP. Now, the company has a web site and iPad app, both called "Brain HQ". The pricing structure is different now and the exercises are available for $10 a month, or less expensive per month for longer subscription periods.
The evidence seems to be piling up that training on a computer can indeed improve brain performance. Some of the exercises are for the ear/brain connection, some for the eye and some for the memory. Much of the work and theory in the last ten years relating to brain health is connected to the finding that the brain gets its patterns of operation from experience, that we train our brains into much of what they are. Merzenich emphasizes that questions of why we have difficulty doing something need to be explored in the light of brain plasticity and possible re-training. It may take surprisingly little training to give ourselves a rejuvenation or improvement in function.
Of course, being able to accept aging and its consequences while still working to be at our best is important, too. My own doctor takes the position I have seen in other sources: get exercise and use the body regularly in all the ways it is built to move. Exercise has top billing for brain health so far, even though there are many competing programs and games.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
