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83 Unique Exercises to Keep Your Brain Alive

By: Moisha Israel

Have you ever searched in vain for your glasses, only to find them perched on top of your head? How many times have you gone shopping and later been unable to find your car in the parking lot? You may tell yourself such things are all part of getting older -- but are they?

Lawrence C. Katz, PhD, recognizes the tremendous need to understand what happens to our brains as we age, and knows that the way we live our lives affects our brains for a long time. Together with co-author Manning Rubin, Dr. Katz developed "neurobics" -- brain exercises that affect how our brains are actually used. He explained the basics of this exciting program in our conversation with him.

What is the new science of brain exercise?

What your brain does most is form associations between different senses -- that's what your brain is really good at; that's what it is designed to do.

The basic idea behind brain exercises is to use your brain's natural desire to form associations, to do things in different ways that cause it to form new associations. The capacity of the brain to form new associations is essentially unlimited.

When your brain does this it causes brain cells to become more active. And when cells are more active they produce molecules that, in turn, "fertilize" nerve cells, keeping them healthier and more resistant to the assaults of old age.

It used to be thought that as you get older, you lose nerve cells. That's not really the case. Now we realize that nerve cells are like a tree, and as you get older the branches start to fall off and thin out. But when nerve cells are activated by specific tasks, that causes them to make their own "fertilizer," which causes them and the cells around them to grow new branches again -- or at least retain the ones they have. It makes brain cells more active in significant ways but also helps cells produce brain-healthy chemicals.

This is a new approach to brain exercises. Most older exercises are a variation on doing puzzles or logic riddles. The approach that Manning and I developed is really more related to lifestyle. How you live your life will affect how your brain is working, and it's important to use the world as your "brain gym," and to use the activities in your everyday life to stimulate your brain in new and interesting ways.

How does the brain work?

The brain takes in information about the outside world through your five senses. It attempts to make sense of this information by linking together the events that occur together.

For example, when you see, hear and smell a dog, all those representations get linked together because you've linked the seeing, hearing and smelling parts of your brain. Your brain is constantly doing this -- it is constantly forming associations, and that goes on throughout your life. You build up these networks of associations so that later on, when you see only a small component of an association, it brings back all the other aspects of it.

What we suggest in "Keep Your Brain Alive" is to tap into this ability to form associations and use them to make some that you wouldn't normally make. For example, instead of associating the smell of coffee with morning, use the smell of vanilla. Instead of using your sense of sight to find your keys, use your sense of touch. You can form new patterns of association in your brain that use the same kind of mechanism but different pathways than your everyday experience would normally provide.

The important thing is to do something new. When your brain knows something, it doesn't pay attention anymore, which is why you can drive to work along a familiar route and not even realize that you've gotten there -- your brain knows what to expect and essentially, you're not paying attention.

An important aspect of brain exercises is to do things that are sufficiently important enough to you that you're going to pay attention in a way that forces your brain to not rely on stored patterns of information. Then it has to develop new ones.

For instance, if you take a different route to work, your brain can't go on "auto-pilot." Or try brushing your teeth with your other hand -- you can't do it without thinking. You really notice what you're doing, and noticing is the first step to getting your brain to create new patterns of connections.

What are some exercises that can help form new associations?

• Commuting to work: Take a different route. That's my favorite because it's so intuitive for people to take a standard route.

• Getting up in the morning: Brush your teeth with the other hand. This activates a whole series of connections on the other side of your brain that you don't normally use. That's why it feels so weird. If you're a right-handed person, you use the connections on the left side of your brain to brush your teeth. When you use your left hand, you activate patterns of activity on the right side of your brain that a right-handed person doesn't normally use. That uncoordinated feeling happens because the new pathways are being asked to do something different.

• At work: Move your wastebasket. It's amazing to realize how routine your life is --- for hours you'll be throwing a piece of paper at the floor because the wastebasket used to be in that space! Or try rearranging your desk. It forces you to form a new mental map so you don't just unconsciously reach for things.

• Coming home: Find your house key and fit it into the lock using your sense of touch, rather than sense of sight.

• Dinnertime: Change where everyone sits at the table. You don't realize how rigid and routine things have become until you change the order of seating at the dinner table. Suddenly, the wrong person is sitting there and you pass things the wrong way and conversation flows differently. Of course, I wouldn't do it with very young kids -- they need predictability. But if you have older children or if it's just you and your spouse, change where people have their place at the table by 180 degrees.

Always be on the lookout to for ways to get out of encrusted routines. When people talk about "mind-numbing routines" it's much more literal than they think.

Try new sensory experiences and vary your routines within whatever range you are comfortable. Look at your life and find where you can make small changes that will not only liven up your everyday routine, but liven up your mind as well.