“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, one of the oldest idioms in the English language, goes back to as early as 1546.
The cartoon below is a modern-day allegorical adaptation. The dog could very well be a senior member of the family or an older coworker spoken to by a Gen Z or younger person. Or, by a frustrated IT guy.
But, the table is turned on us (below). One dog says to the other, "You can try, but once they're past forty, you can't teach them new tricks".
A decade ago we may not have heard of these two terms, "Neuroplasticity" and "Neurogenesis". We'll go back to this later.
Let's back up for just a bit.
The average young brain has 100 billion neurons, give or take a few million. These neurons are capable of making 100 trillion connections. AI (artificial intelligence), robots, computers do not come close in comparison to such raw capabilities, requiring only the energy equivalent of one dinner the night before. Keep in mind that Watson, IBM's supercomputer, was backed up by a roomful of electric-power-hungry processors that need to be cooled to prevent overheating and constantly monitored by a team of technicians and engineers as it competed and beat Ken Jennings - Jeopardy's winningest human champion. Kasparov, world chess champion also lost to another IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue".
So no, we cannot compete with computers for speed and unerring capability; but yes, we have a better tool that is a mere 3-1/2 pounds of living tissue compared to several thousand pounds of inanimate hardware.
Now, let's talk about what we have and how best we can maintain and prolong its service.
When an NBA player - or any basketball player, for that matter - makes a jump shot, the brain must make immense calculations within a second or two. The brain takes into account where the player is relative to the hoop, how high the jump should be, and whether the jump is a straight vertical, a fade away, a forward shoulder thrust, etc. and releases the ball in an arc with just the right amount of spin or none at all. Michael Jordan wasn't aware his brain was doing any of those because he was more concerned about the defender in front of or next to him while determining in a millisecond whether to rush forward to rebound a missed shot or to pedal backwards, admiring the swish of the basketball as it clears the hoop twenty feet away encountering nothing but net.
Coaches and players talk about muscle memory from hours and hours of practice. We are told of hand-eye coordination as if those are the only two that matter. It is actually, hand-eye-brain-hand and literally the entire body to execute every shot. Now, if the shot is done within a second, which usually is the case, then the brain is virtually making those trillions of connections in nanosecond increments.
Whether the person is an athlete, a lumberjack, a nurse, a fighter pilot, a seamstress, he or she relies on that 3-1/2 pound tissue to coordinate everything the body does, including all existential biological functions like breathing, regulating blood pressure, heart rate while keeping tab of fuel consumption and all the peripheral requirements down to growing a finger nail, or detect thirst, etc. And remembering what to pick up or cook for dinner.
By now the reader, I hope, is fully convinced he or she is equipped with the world's best computer and a built-in operating manual, each unique from any other.
However, we should not forget that the brain is so much more than just a controller of all our physical functions. In fact, so much more that the brain does is beyond miraculous.
First, some sobering numbers. Today, approximately 617 million people worldwide are aged 65 or over (8.5%); by 2050 seniors will make up 16.7% of the population, or 1.6 billion. There must be a way to make sure that the increase will not be such a heavy economic and emotional burden to society in such a way that that sector, or as much of it as possible, remains not just physically able but still mentally capable for healthy aging. The key is maintaining a healthy brain.
Our brains, recent findings show, are astonishingly resilient, given certain parameters within which their "operating systems", so to speak, are maintained and "reconditioned" regularly. And that every person, generally speaking, has a potential for "possible significant benefits for optimal brain aging".
Needless to say, we begin with the universal, "diet and exercise", as the universal go-to prescription for any age (actually). Obviously, excessive alcohol consumption, drug addiction, unhealthy diet and irregular sleeping habits contribute to rapid mental decline, we are told. But we should not stop there. Let's look at the latest findings on brain research.
First, the bad news. We do not need to be reminded of all that are associated with aging, many of which are significantly visible, like losing hair, muscular flexibility, and diminished senses like hearing and eyesight, but there is one invisible phenomenon - losing chunks of the original 100 billion neurons mentioned earlier.
The good news:
"Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to transform its shape, adapt, and develop a new neuronal connection provided with a new stimulus". Research has also shown that the brain has this incredible ability, via a complicated process "in which the stem cells of neurons present in the hippocampus region of the brain differentiate and proliferate into new neurons with new experiences and other supporting cells". In other words, our brains can regrow neurons?
The process of neurogenesis relies on neural stem cells forming these materials. Neural stem cells cycle through dormant and active states throughout life, and they can divide to make more cells as needed".
However, it is not a freebie, but it will cost very little on our part. Several papers have been written about what steps we can take.
We need to be childlike by renewing the level of curiosity that we all used to have when we were young with an eager brain willing to learn and absorb everything. Every time we provide the brain with a stimulus from learning something new, the brain develops "new neuronal connections". Immersion in a hobby, or in depth dedication to learning a new language, or spending time on unfamiliar subjects you've always been curious about, as examples, may accomplish what neurobiologists describe as, "neurons that fire together, wire together" through sustained stimuli. The effect of active mental activity cannot be underestimated.
On the other hand, the brain can get "lazy". Mental laziness is suspected to cause even more neural losses. Learning, learning how to do things differently, trying out new recipes, etc. are some of the ways we are told the brain can be stimulated.
Vladimir Horowitz, considered one of the best pianists who ever lived, who performed till he was in his early 80's (he passed away at age 86), said that although he could be performing the same pieces over and over in front of live audiences, he would do each performance a little differently each time. That was his way of making sure his brain was not on "auto pilot". Martha Argerich, the Argentinian-born concert pianist, at age 82 now, is still booked for several U.S. concerts in 2023. Her performance at the London Proms last year was described as "mesmerizing". Check her out on You Tube as she performed one of the most physically and mentally demanding, "Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1" that is about 40 minutes long. I cite these two as the appropriate examples of the brain's resiliency to remember complexities - all the musical pieces they must not only memorize but replay them over and over while maintaining awareness that there are up to fifty other musicians in the orchestra they need to synchronize with. They can do that because their brains are made to work constantly.
In college, decades ago, two semesters of English (a second language for us in The Philippines) were prerequisite for graduation even though we majored in Engineering, which took us going over to the university's Liberal Arts Dept. for classes. I remember asking our English professor how and if we will ever be proficient in the language since we didn't routinely use it in daily life. Her reply, consistent with her being an English teacher, was "Never stop learning the language past these two semesters, or even after graduation but continue all through the rest of your natural life". I am not perfectly proficient in it now but I can say that I'm better at it since those two semesters, even much better since after retirement because I followed her advice to never stop learning the language, along with everything else that piques my interest.
Today, we are still being told to never stop learning. The learning medium does not make a difference. We learn from reading, watching or from conversation with others, but the most important one is learning from doing. That is because our brains are most active when it is directing our bodies' physical activities.
Of course, let us not forget that a healthy brain needs a healthy body. This is the hard part because it is easier said than done. But we should try. We owe it to our brain. Someone, a few years back, who gave me tips on swimming told me this, "Swimming is one of these rare activities where we demand from our brain all these physical coordination - proper arm strokes, leg kicks, breathing, etc. - but the most compelling motivation for it is to keep from drowning". Of course, he was half joking but what greater incentive for the brain but one with existential ramification. If one plays golf, tennis, speed walk, play a musical instrument, crochet, cook, paint, write, any activity that involves hand-eye-brain coordination, the brain is at its most active state.
If we need to condense all of these as cited in research and all kinds of paper on neurobiology, it is this: A busy brain is a happy brain. A happy brain is highly motivated against mental aging in more ways than we can imagine.
