New Challenges Keeps The Brain Young

I enjoy my mother who is seventy something and has been retired for eight years. She's experienced her ups and downs with adjustment to retired life, but I'm happy to report that she's finally setting into a comfortable routine.

This past year her greatest pastime has been reading. I'll call her up and say, "Mom, your favorite show is on guest staring one of your favorite comedians. Are you going to watch?"

"I haven't watched TV in ages," she says.

"What have you been doing with your time?"

"Reading."

"Oh."

The other day I planned a surprise visit, thinking mom probably needed more people contact, more visits from her daughter. I figured I should encourage her to get out of her books and back into the world. So, I went for an unplanned visit, knocked on the door, and waited.

When she answered the door she was blindfolded. At first I was alarmed. Was someone holding my mom hostage, but they let her answer the door? The blindfold was white. Had she injured her eyes?"

When I was sure she was alone I said, "Mom, what's going on? Are you hurt? What's with the blindfold?"

She touched her way down the hall and led me to her living room. "I'm growing new dendrites," she said.

I looked around. I didn't see any new plants in soil. "What are dendrites and why the blindfold?"

My mother laughed and removed the blindfold. "Dr. Katz says there are 83 exercises to keep the brain alive. Finding your way around the house blindfolded is one of them."

"Who's Dr. Katz?"

"He's the author of a book I'm reading." Mom went on to explain that dendrites are the branches on the nerve cells that connect to other nerve cells forming the basis of memory. The theory is that if dendrite connections are not used regularly, they can waste away and reduce the brain's ability to commit new experiences to memory and to recall old memories. The good news is, new dendrites can be grown at any age by surprising the brain and forcing it to act spontaneously.

"I'm an old neuron growing new dendrites," my mother made fun of herself.

Okay. I admit, I thought my mother was loosing it, until she explained that rearranging the furniture in your house was another way of surprising the brain forcing spontaneous moves. She had my attention there. I'm not yet concerned about growing old and keeping the brain active, but I am looking for new excuses to explain why I keep rearranging the living room and bedroom furniture.

Mom explained that getting old is not the death of nerve cells in the brain but a failure to grow new dendrites. "Habits and routines are great," she said. "They give us comfort and make us feel secure, but the more set in our ways we become the less opportunity we have to develop new dendrites. Baby, this brain can grow and I aim to keep it active. Use it or loose it," she said, and she replaced her blindfold.

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Dr Lawrence Katz is professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center, author of "Keep Your Brain Alive"