Research from 2017 suggests music, especially when combined with dance, art, gaming, and exercise, helps promote neuroplasticity. Music therapy also appears to help slow down cognitive decline in older adults. ability to learn and remember new information.Whatever method you choose, try to stick with it for at least a few months, even if you only do 10 or 15 minutes of study a day. Hit your local secondhand book store for textbooks, or check your library for books and CDs. You may have heard of online programs and apps like Rosetta Stone, Babbel, and Duolingo, but you can study languages in other ways too. stronger problem-solving and creative thinking skills.Studying a new language at any age can lead to: …and white matterĪccording to 2017 research, learning a second language in adulthood can also strengthen white matter, which helps facilitate brain connectivity and communication between different brain regions. The hippocampus plays an important role in long-term memory recall. Learning a language at any stage of life could help slow down future decline related to age, including symptoms of dementia.Īnother 2012 study found evidence to support the idea that picking up a new language increases gray matter density and neuroplasticity.Īfter 3 months of intensive study of a new topic, 14 adult interpreters saw increases in both gray matter density and hippocampal volume. In fact, it’s believed bilingualism may offer some protective benefits against cognitive decline. Increased gray matter density can improve your function in these areas, especially as you age. Gray matter houses many important regions in your brain, including areas associated with: After 5 months of intensive language study, their proficiency in German had increased - and so had the density of gray matter in their brain. In one 2012 study, researchers looked at 10 exchange students who were native English speakers studying German in Switzerland. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that acquiring a new language improves cognitive function. In either case, you’d be doing your brain a big favor. This doesn’t mean you have to play for 16 hours at once, of course - this actually isn’t recommended.īut adding a few hours of weekly gameplay to your leisure time can be a great way to improve neuroplasticity.Įver considered studying another language? Maybe you thought a second (or third) language might boost your career opportunities, or you wanted to pick it up just for fun. These effects appear to kick in after about 16 hours of gameplay. Rhythm gaming, like dance or exercise video games, can help improve visuospatial memory and attention.Puzzle games help boost problem-solving skills, brain connectivity, and spatial prediction.3-D adventure games seemed to contribute to improvements in memory, problem-solving, and scene recognition.Exploring different solutions to a task in a game can help enhance creative thinking.Īccording to a 2019 review, different types of games may offer varying benefits:.Learning to recover from failure in a game can help you get better at bouncing back from setbacks.These effects can improve your gameplay, certainly, but they also carry over to the rest of your life: In short, when you play video games, you teach your brain new skills. reasoning, decision making, and problem-solving skills.visual recognition and spatial navigation.The benefits associated with gaming include improvements in: Rewiring your brain might sound pretty complicated, but it’s absolutely something you can do at home.ĭebate over the potential benefits and risks of video games can get pretty contentious, but if you enjoy gaming, there’s some good news: Research suggests this hobby can have plenty of cognitive benefits. Exercises that promote positive neuroplasticity, then, may help “rewrite” these patterns to improve well-being.
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Neuroplasticity also seems to have promise as a driver of potential treatment for certain mental health conditions.Įxperts believe the negative thought patterns that occur with depression, for example, could result from interrupted or impaired neuroplasticity processes. Therapy and rehabilitation can help your brain relearn this ability by repairing old pathways or creating new ones. In other words, it can continue developing and changing throughout life.įor example, if brain trauma after a car accident affects your ability to speak, you haven’t necessarily lost this ability permanently. “Neuroplasticity” refers to your brain’s ability to restructure or rewire itself when it recognizes the need for adaption.
But evidence does support the existence of one of its most important processes: neuroplasticity. Some believe we may never fully understand them all.
Experts have yet to determine the limits of the brain’s abilities.