By Bernard
Croisile, M.D. Neurology, Ph. D. Neuropsychology
5 daily brain exercises for you
to perform
Many men are devoted to exercise to bulk up their bodies, but the
phrase “use it or lose it” applies to more than just the muscles
in our bodies -- it also applies to the neural pathways and connections
in our brains. There are a variety of exercises and activities that can
successfully work each of the brain’s five major cognitive functions on
a daily basis. In addition to the tasks you can perform daily, you can
also train your brain with HAPPYneuron online brain games and a
personalized
brain fitness
program.
Our minds consist of five main cognitive functions:
- memory,
- attention,
- language,
- visual-spatial skills,
- and executive function.
It’s important to challenge, stimulate and effectively exercise all
five areas to stay mentally sharp as our brains age. Here are 5 daily
brain exercises that can help you do this.
1- Memory
Memory plays a crucial role in all cognitive activities, including
reading, reasoning and mental calculation. There are several types of
memory at work in the brain. Taken together, these are the cognitive
skills we may notice most when they begin to fail. To maintain a good
memory, you need to train for it, which can be easier than you think.
Listening to music is not only enjoyable, but by choosing a song you
don’t know and memorizing the lyrics, you boost the level of
acetylcholine, the chemical that helps build your brain, and improve
your memory
skills. Challenge yourself even more by showering or getting dressed in
the dark or using your opposite hand to brush your teeth. These
challenges help build new associations between different neural
connections of the brain.
Improve your memory with this HAPPYneuron game.
2- Attention
Attention is necessary in nearly all daily tasks. Good attention
enables you to maintain concentration despite noise and distractions
and to focus on several activities at once. We can improve our
attention by simply changing our routines. Change your route to work or
reorganize your desk -- both will force your brain to wake up from
habits and pay attention again. As we age, our attention span can
decrease, making us more susceptible to distraction and less efficient
at multitasking. By combining activities like listening to an audio
book with jogging or doing math in your head while you drive forces
your brain to work at doing more in the same amount of time
Improve your attention with this HAPPYneuron game.
3- Language
Language activities will challenge our ability to recognize, remember
and understand words. They also exercise our fluency, grammatical
skills and vocabulary. With regular practice, you can expand your
knowledge of new words and much more easily retrieve words that are
familiar. For example, if you usually only thoroughly read the sports
section, try reading a few in-depth business articles. You’ll be
exposed to new words, which are easier to understand when read in
context or easier to look up on a dictionary site if you are reading
the news online. Take time to understand the word in its context, which
will help you build your language skills and retrieve the word more
readily in front of your
boss in the future.
Improve your language skills with this HAPPYneuron game.
4- Visual-Spatial
We live in a colorful, three-dimensional
world. Analyzing visual information is necessary to be able to act
within your environment. To work this cognitive function, try walking
into a room and picking out five items and their locations. When you
exit the room, try to recall all five items and where they were
located. Too easy? Wait two hours and try to remember those items and
their locations. The next time you’re waiting on your coworker or
friend to arrive, try this mental exercise. Look straight ahead and
note everything you can see both in front of you and in your peripheral
vision. Challenge yourself to recall everything and write it down. This
will force you to use your
memory and train your brain to focus on your surroundings.
Improve your visual-spatial skills with this HAPPYneuron game.
5- Executive Function
Without even realizing it, you use your logic and reasoning skills on a
daily basis to make decisions, build up hypotheses and consider the
possible consequences of your actions. Activities in which you must
define a strategy to reach a desired outcome and calculate the right
moves to reach the solution in the shortest possible time are actually
fun activities you do daily -- like social interaction and, yes, video
games. Engaging in a brief visit with a friend boosts your intellectual
performance by requiring you to consider possible responses and desired
outcomes. Video games require strategy and problem-solving
to reach a desired outcome -- like making it to the final level. “It’s
not just Halo, honey; I’m exercising my executive brain
functions!”
Improve your executive function skills with this HAPPYneuron game.
cerebral workout
As we age, it’s important to flex our mental muscles
as well as our physiques. Now that you’re aware of the five main
cognitive functions and how to exercise them, it will be easy to find
daily activities that will help you break a mental sweat and keep your
brain in shape. If you need a little structured help, HAPPYneuron
has fun and challenging games to work the brain in all five areas, as
well as a virtual coach to serve as a personal
trainer and ensure you get the most optimal brain workout for you.
Neurologist & neuropsychologist Dr. Bernard Croisile, author of Dental
Floss for the Mind, Get your Brain in the Fast Lane and Broccoli
for the Brain, as well a developer of HAPPYneuron
online brain fitness program, fills you in how the brain’s five major
cognitive functions are affected by various types of activities.
Article from men.com
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