Your Brain Is Like a Muscle, Use It

When you think of learning, you may think back to your days in grade school or college. But learning throughout life is vital for keeping your brain healthy as you age.

“Your brain is like a muscle,” says Daniel G. Amen, M.D., a psychiatrist based in Costa Mesa, Calif., and author of Change Your Brain Every Day: Simple Daily Practices to Strengthen Your Mind, Memory, Moods, Focus, Energy, Habits, and Relationships. “The more you use it, the more you can actually make new connections.”

And the more new things you’re trying to learn, the better, according to a recent study. Researchers from the University of California, Riverside asked adults ages 58 to 86 to take three to five classes (such as Spanish, photography, art or music composition) for three months.

The results? Participants’ scores on tests of working memory (for example, remembering a phone number), cognitive control (the ability to switch between tasks) and episodic memory (such as remembering where you parked) rose to levels similar to people 30 years younger. The improvements lasted for a year after classes ended, the team reported in 2023 in Aging and Mental Health. Meanwhile, cognitive performance among a group of older people who didn’t attend the classes stayed the same.

Likewise, another 2023 study in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience from Japan’s Tohoku University found that education can lead to brain boosts. In the study of more than 282,000 middle-aged adults, those who participated in adult education classes did better on tests of fluid intelligence, or reasoning ability, than those who did not enroll in classes. They also had a lower risk of developing dementia after five years.

Here’s how it works: When you learn something new, fibers called dendrites branch out of neurons, or nerve cells, in your brain like twigs on a tree, forming dense networks. Electrical signals send information from one neuron to another across a small gap, called the synapse, between the neurons’ contact points.

“When you’re building those connections, you’re actually changing the shape and structure of neurons,” Amen says. “You’re pumping them up and giving them more contact points to learn new things.”

If you’re depending solely on a favorite cognitive activity, such as a daily crossword puzzle, to keep your mind strong, you may want to rethink the strategy, Amen says, since doing the same thing over and over again isn’t challenging enough to work that magic. “It’s like going to the gym and just doing bicep curls,” he says. “Your brain has many different parts, so you want to engage it in different ways. The act of mixing it up makes the brain more agile.”

Need some ideas to keep your brain busy? Try learning a new language, picking up a musical instrument or head over to the library in addition to the activities you already enjoy.