Younger Every Year

A press release from the NIH earlier today:NIA and McKnight Brain Research Foundation Join Forces to Support Cognitive Aging ResearchThe Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging is a newly launched public-private effort to support current and emerging research on age-related changes in the brain and cognition. Jointly funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, through the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), this effort is expected to award an estimated $20 million in research grants over the next five years. The research partnership is aimed at expanding understanding of how we think, learn and remember with age and at developing interventions to maintain cognitive health as we grow older.Read the full release (Source: BrainBlog)

Original post by BrainBlog

Original post by stephend

While I’m working in Mexico, my wife Diane spends much of each day in an immersion Spanish class. She began by taking Spanish classes over a period of about a year at a local community center. Now that she has the basics, an immersion class in which you have to operate in the second language is pretty effective. After two weeks of classes, the difference is striking; she now has the confidence for operating in simple, everyday conversations in social child-talk Spanish. She is determine to grow an oak tree from this acorn!
There are few things that you can do that are better for an older brain than taking on a complex new challenge like this one. Learning a second language requires careful listening, and a heavy dose of new learning on all levels of perception, memory, cognition, and motor control. This is rich food for an older brain! And beyond the benefits to Diane, your blogger reaps the benefits of having a competent translator as a boon companion! And she’s cute, too! (Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.)

Original post by On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.