Life around us often seems full of bad news. But optimistic news sometimes occurs too, and I was personally cheered by a new report concerning the human brain.
We have been told that the human brain slows down with age and there is a certain level of mental decay associated with old age. We lose brain cells through the years and we don’t manufacture new ones: and we notice it, too. How quickly young people react to things! How fast they are on the uptake – while I’m still looking for my reading glasses.
But a study just published by the brain science journal Cell Stem Cell, written by Maura Boldrini of Columbia University in New York, says that mental deterioration is not inevitable in old age. The brain is capable of generating fresh neurons – the building blocks of cognitive ability – and making good use of the synapses (the connecting bits) that already exist. Brain function in old age is also assisted by “social interaction, learning, exercise and diet”.
I feel I’ve learned a lot about how my brain functions by taking up crossword puzzles relatively late in life. I’m not naturally clever at crosswords – unlike those brilliant women who were recruited to Bletchley Park during the war who were chosen for their skill at cryptic crosswords. I’m by disposition slow and labouring at the task.
Yet, over the past 10 years, by doing a crossword every day, I’ve gradually become better at it. It has improved my memory for words and taught me to note the names of trees, birds and flowers. It has made the brain cells work while searching for solutions.
And I’ve noticed this about brain function: if I start a crossword before lunch, fill in a few of the easier answers immediately, and then set the puzzle aside for several hours, the harder solutions will sometimes pop into my head later in the day. Because, subconsciously, those neurons and synapses have been working away doing a memory search. But if I start the crossword late in the day, the brain is too tired to get the neurons into gear.
The older brain, I’ve deduced from my own research, does take longer than a younger one. But given time to apply itself to the job, it’s often still in good working order. And sometimes it can reach into a vast memory stored away in its cells.
By the way, the uplifting Boldrini report might have mentioned that another aspect of sustainable brain activity is simply going to church. Many studies have shown that churchgoers live more alert lives into old age.
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Last week, I took my granddaughters to the English National Ballet’s production of Swan Lake for children – a “My First Ballet” version of Tchaikovsky’s great classic, done in an accessible way for youngsters from three years of age. It’s a delightful show for young families, and was packed out with responsive kids.
Exposure to the arts at a young age can be inspirational and creative and many fine artistes remember being dazzled by such an early experience.
This Swan Lake – currently touring in England – is abridged (the famous dance of the cygnets is omitted, though the even more famous 32 pirouettes in Act II are included). And the ending is changed. Instead of Siegfried and Odile meeting death in the lake, they’re brought together and live happily ever after.
I’m not sure that this is apt. Ballet and opera are about beauty and uplift, but they are also about the tragic element in life, and the meaning of sacrifice. That is part of the depth of their message.
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Joanna Coles, the influential Yorkshire-born but American-based magazine editor – she was the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and Marie Claire – tells Maureen Dowd of the New York Times that pornography culture is making sexuality “bleak and transactional”. Ms Coles has written a book, Love Rules, to help young women avoid the dispiriting traps of the “hook-up” culture which is currently so pervasive, and so influenced by porn.
We laughed, we jeered and we mocked when Mary Whitehouse made this point. Now all the feminists are saying it. Old truths often return in new livery.
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