Dr. Majid Fotuhi

As baseline.

So it was one notch higher, but that increase in brain volume that happened during three months was like down by 70, 80%.

They did the same thing in people in their seventies and they saw the same thing.

that this older gentleman, older participants, it took him longer to learn it.

But after three months, they learned they had learned and become good at it, the part of brain, those same parts of the brain increase in volume, and when they didn't for three months, it went back down.

So your brain ability, your brain's ability to grow and become bigger and stronger, remains in place throughout life.

And

You can take advantage of that by doing things that challenge your brain.

If you read something, it's good for you.

It challenges your brain because you have to sustain your attention and keep track of the plot as you're reading a book.

But things that are more challenging will be even better for you.

So if you learn how to dance, if you learn how to go fishing, if you learn a new hobby, if you learn how to fix things around the house, anything that makes you think, anything that makes you frustrated, like it's not working, that moment of frustration is when a new synapse is born.

Just like when you go through pain, they say no pain, no gain in bodybuilding, same in the brain.

When you go through the moment of frustration or you're playing the piano or guitar or any instrument that you're learning, you make the mistake and you do it again and you do it again and you finally get it.

That's when new synapses are born and that's where the hippocampus and cortex are starting to grow.

The stretching is the pain that you feel.

It's a good thing.

It's a good thing.

So if you learn something new and you're frustrated, you should give yourself a patented back.

My brother is a psychologist at University of Pittsburgh.