Dr. David Eagleman

Speaking a new language is great.

You know, obviously we're in a world that's moving very fast.

So just keeping up with the technology and figuring out, well, there's this new opportunity here with this piece of software, whatever.

All that stuff is great.

This is the critically important part.

You may know these studies.

There's been this study going on for decades now called the Religious Orders Study up in Chicago area where there's a whole bunch of nuns and priests that agreed to donate their brains when they passed away.

and then when they donate their brains the researchers uh you know examine them do autopsies on what the researchers found is that some fraction of these nuns had alzheimer's disease but nobody knew it when they were alive nobody saw any cognitive deficits why it's because these these women died in their 90s and to the day they died they lived in these convents and in the convents

They had social responsibilities.

They had chores.

They were fighting with their sisters.

They were playing games with their fellow sisters.

They were singing songs.

They were doing things all the time.

So they kept their brain active.

So even as their brain was physically degenerating with Alzheimer's disease, they were building new roadways.

They were building new bridges over these areas.

This is one of the big things that tells us that, you know, contrast this with people who retire at 65 and they go home and they sit on a couch and watch the television.

They don't have as good an outcome because they're not challenging their brain anymore.

So it is so important to be doing things.