Not so long ago, scientists and doctors believed that the number of neurons, cells, and neural pathways in the brain would not change from the moment we were born. So, we have to use it, or lose its functionality. The brain is made up of four major lobes, multiple structures within the lobes, left and right hemispheres, an intricate communication network, and more than 100 billion nerve cells. The good news is that in recent years the scientific research community discovered a process called neuroplasticity. That is, the communication pathways of nerves and nerve cells in the brain continue to develop throughout life. This process slows down more and more with age, but doesn't stop completely as we previously believed. You can stimulate new cell growth and neural pathways by improving thinking ability and overall brain function.
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Part 1 of 5: Train the Brain
Step 1. Grow new neurons
The brain is filled with billions of cells that contain a cell nucleus, axons, dendrites, and synapses.
- One proven way to grow new neurons is to learn. Existing axons, dendrites, and synapses must be preserved so that they are not lazy. Continue activities you're already doing, including exercise, reading, doing puzzles, exercises, crafts, or music.
- The key to giving birth to new neurons is learning something different, maybe something that is a little awkward at first.
- Brain neuroplasticity, or the ability to grow brain cells, occurs when you take responsibility and expose your brain to something different.
Step 2. Try something new
For example, throwing a ball, playing a musical instrument, or whatever is new to you.
- Doing ordinary things differently can also help. For example, try walking backwards back home, with caution.
- Try whatever you feel will challenge the brain, but require you to think.
Step 3. Do neurobic exercises
Neurobics are exercises designed to stimulate new growth in the brain. The basic premise of neurobics is to use the senses to stimulate new brain pathways. Think of ways to challenge the brain by changing sensory perception. The example is:
- Dress with blindfolds or curtains.
- Wearing headphones that make noise while trying to communicate verbally. Try to chat and understand what the other person is saying with mouth movements and hand gestures.
- If you can play the piano, try playing simple, familiar notes with your eyes closed.
- Trying to play a simple note with all fingers, but pressing the bass chord with the right hand and above middle C, and the treble chord with the left hand and below middle C.
- Use your non-dominant hand to perform routine activities. Try brushing your teeth, combing your hair, and using the computer mouse with your non-dominant hand.
- Write with non-dominant hand.
- Try writing a few sentences that you remember, perhaps the first stanza of a familiar poem or song, writing the letters upside down, opposite as reflected in a mirror, or from right to left of the page.
- Play your favorite sport with your non-dominant hand.
- Change routine. Wear shoes in the reverse order. Weed the grass in the opposite direction. Think of other routines you do often and change the order.
- Take a walk in the morning to recognize the smells around.
- Trying to identify ingredients in a dish just by their taste and aroma.
Step 4. Increase blood flow to the brain
Recent studies have used only strategy-based brain training, without introducing any element of physical exercise, to increase blood flow in the brain. The results showed that overall blood flow in the brain was significantly increased with only brain-based exercise.
- The point of this study is to increase the overall blood flow in the brain with just mental exercise.
- When blood flow to the brain slows down, the result is brain atrophy. Atrophy in the brain means cells shrink, important communication pathways diminish, and brain tissue and other important structures shrink.
- The study involved participants of all ages who had suffered a traumatic brain injury, about 65% of the participants had suffered a brain injury at least 10 years earlier.
- Some of the groups were given strategy-based brain exercises and some were given general teaching materials on how the brain works during the same time.
- The group that received the strategy-based exercise improved abstract thinking scores by more than 20%, measures of memory function improved by 30%, and overall blood flow in the brain showed significant improvements when compared to the control group.
- Many of the participants also suffered from symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms of depression in the strategy-based exercise group improved by 60% and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder improved by nearly 40%.
- Strategy-based exercise improves overall blood flow in the brain and helps prevent brain shrinkage.
Step 5. Try a strategy-based brain exercise
This form of exercise is very common and can be found all around you, including newspapers.
- A strategy brain game is one in which the solution has to be thought out. Do crosswords, word-scramble, Sudoku, or disassemble. A puzzle game that has no room for coincidence, that requires you to think includes strategy-based brain games.
- Play with other people. Games like chess, Go, or checkers involve thinking when taking a move and when anticipating the opponent's moves.
Step 6. Improve brain work with mental exercises
Make a list of things you generally do, such as a shopping list or what you did that day, and remember the list.
A few hours after completing the list, or even the next day, try to remember everything on the list
Step 7. Do the math in your head
Start with simple and systematic questions.
Once you are more familiar with the easier questions, work on the more difficult ones. Make this challenge more interesting by talking while working on the problem in your head
Step 8. Create a picture of the words in the head
Visualize a word, then find a way to challenge yourself using that word.
One way is to think of other words that start and end with the same letter, or think of words that have more syllables but have the same rhyme
Step 9. Get involved in creating the music
Music is a valuable experience. Do something musical, which you don't normally do.
- If you can already play one instrument, learn to play another.
- Join a singing group. If you can't sing well, joining a choir or vocal group will develop brain function on several levels.
- You will learn to understand the arrangement of the music on the sheet to be sung, the timing and rhythm, and the regular singing. Plus, you'll be exposed to a whole new group of people, and it's a great opportunity to further develop your brain while learning music.
Step 10. Take the course
Try cooking, mechanics, woodworking, sewing, or crafts classes.
- Taking a course you don't know about, but want to learn, will help develop new pathways in the brain.
- This happens both by learning new material and interacting with new people in a new environment.
Step 11. Learn a new language
This is a great way to improve cognitive function and thinking skills.
A new language also helps you develop a vocabulary associated with higher cognitive functioning. In addition, hearing and speaking a new language also develops new pathways in the brain
Step 12. Learn a new sport
Try sports that are new to you, and consider those that require at least one opposing player.
Golf is a sport that you can basically play alone, but it's more challenging when you play with your opponent. It creates experiences for the brain to regulate and react to, and thus grow new brain pathways and cells
Step 13. Talk to someone
The more you talk, the more your brain works to compensate and process new information.
If you have kids, try chatting with them. Children who are often invited to chat will be smarter
Step 14. Make friends with various people
Chatting with people who have different opinions on a topic will challenge your brain and executive function skills to determine how you will respond to the same topic, but in different groups.
The more diverse your friends, the more challenged your brain will be to be creative both in conversation and participation in various types of social interactions
Part 2 of 5: Training the Body to Improve Thinking Ability
Step 1. Do aerobic exercise
More and more research is showing that physical exercise is the most effective way to improve thinking ability and overall brain function.
- Create an exercise program of one hour sessions, three times a week, with basic exercises such as walking, or using a treadmill or stationary bike.
- Follow an exercise routine for at least 12 weeks to improve brain health, cognitive abilities, and thinking skills.
- Recent studies conducted on sedentary people, ages 57 to 75 years, support this level of exercise with scientific data.
- The exercise group showed a rapid increase in circulating blood flow to brain areas, significant improvements in immediate or delayed memory function, improved cognitive abilities, frontal lobe function, visuospatial ability, processing speed, and overall cognition improvement.
- The authors interpret the results of this study as further indication that anyone, at any age, can use physical exercise as a way of influencing brain neuroplasticity.
Step 2. Combine exercise with study
Vocabulary recall is greatly improved when exercise is included just before, during, or immediately after exposure to vocabulary.
- Two different studies, one in female students and one in male students, demonstrated a significantly higher increase in vocabulary recall ability when learning was associated with exercise.
- Female college students performed best when they were exposed to vocabulary for 30 minutes while exercising. The form of exercise in this study was riding a stationary bicycle for 30 minutes.
- Male students were divided into groups without exercise, moderate exercise, or vigorous exercise. Improvements were seen in students hearing vocabulary right before or immediately after strenuous exercise.
Step 3. Exercise to increase BDNF levels
Cognitive function and memory improve when a substance called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is increased.
- Exercise increases BDNF levels.
- BDNF levels return to normal about 30 minutes after stopping the exercise routine. So, take advantage of that time. Work on a difficult work project or study for an exam immediately after exercising.
Step 4. Start exercising now, the younger, the better
Structures in our brains perform different functions and communicate through complex networks to keep thinking skills sharp and memory functions stable, help make critical decisions, devise strategic ways to solve problems, process and organize incoming information, control emotions, and control behavior. we respond to countless situations.
- When structures in the brain lose volume, or begin to shrink, our brain function declines along with the shrinking part of the brain. Exercise helps prevent this shrinkage.
- The prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, structures in the brain that support higher levels of memory and cognitive function, begin to shrink at a rate of 1% to 2% annually in people over 55 years of age.
- Research conducted in 2010 provided the first recorded evidence that exercise from an early age helps prevent brain shrinkage in later years, and reduces the risk of cognitive decline.
Step 5. Get up and move
The scientific community is still trying to determine the best exercise and how long it should be done to give the most improvement in brain function. Although the question remains unanswered, some things are clearer.
- Stretching and muscle toning exercises have little to no effect on improving brain function.
- The sport you do should require active participation.
- Walking on a treadmill and riding a stationary bike counts as active participation.
- This type of aerobic exercise not only helps maintain brain power, but also helps restore weakened abilities. Even if you are aging, have a medical condition, and have a brain injury, exercise is a proven way to restore brain power.
- So, get up and get moving. You can walk on a treadmill or a safe path, ride a stationary bike or bicycle if it's safe, and participate in competitive sports such as tennis.
- Active, competitive sports, such as tennis, provide greater benefits because other areas of the brain are involved. Additional exposures to this part of the brain in tennis are socialization, problem solving, visuospatial reactions, anticipation, and reaction time.
Step 6. Increase cognitive flexibility
Cognitive flexibility allows you to think about more than one thing at a time, to switch activities and thoughts from one topic to another quickly, and to adapt to changing situations in a short amount of time.
Active and persistent exercise, particularly running, was associated with significant improvements in cognitive flexibility
Part 3 of 5: Stimulating the Frontal Lobe
Step 1. Think of the frontal lobe as the central command
The frontal lobe is the largest of the four lobes and is the area responsible for higher cognitive functions.
- The frontal lobe is the center of executive function and also integrates communication throughout the brain to make executive function decisions.
- The ability of executive function is needed to regulate the information that enters the brain and regulate how you respond.
- Examples are timing, paying attention, multitasking and alternating focus, being detail-oriented when needed, controlling what is approved and rejected, and making decisions based on previous experience.
Step 2. Play
Physical games such as sports and light play with children, friends, or family help strengthen the frontal cortex and processes involved in executive function.
Physical play helps sharpen executive function skills because you anticipate and react to changing situations
Step 3. Use imagination
Imaginative play helps strengthen executive functioning abilities because the brain works to regulate reactions to unknown circumstances and situations that you create in your mind.
- Think of positive scenarios and develop them into stories, or chapters within stories.
- Look for pictures in the clouds, imagine a conversation between a duck and a fish, make a head painting based on a favorite song, or do anything that engages the imagination.
- Imagination stimulates the brain to release active and beneficial chemicals. Triggering brain neurons alongside rarely used axons, dendrites, and synapses is the key to growing new ones.
Step 4. Avoid negative influences
Even if you have to deal with difficult situations, don't let a negative attitude affect the way you think and feel.
Some people and situations are sometimes very dramatic. So, you must maintain a positive attitude and be ready to solve problems when faced with negative situations
Step 5. Give a hug
Physical contact, such as giving and receiving hugs, and physical gestures of support and friendliness, provide a calming effect on the brain.
- Social interaction is healthy and can help develop new pathways in the brain when you are in an unfamiliar but positive situation. Social interaction is essential for creating new brain pathways.
- The brain continues to learn and use executive functions as you interact with other people, regulate responses to situations, and consider appropriate reactions to others.
Step 6. Listen to music
Music has been shown to induce changes, both positive and negative, in the frontal lobes of the brain.
- Exposure to music has been shown to help increase IQ and enhance learning abilities. Reading and literacy skills improved, spatial-temporal reasoning was greater, and math skills also improved.
- There are certain types of music that have bad results, such as unhealthy lifestyle choices, criminal activity, and even suicide.
- There are also types of music that are associated with developing early visuospatial skills, being better at math, improving the ability to learn foreign languages, and an overall healthy lifestyle.
Step 7. Review the results of the rock music study
This study used three groups of mice exposed to different types of music.
- The group exposed to rock music with dissonant beats showed disorganized, confused, and lost behavior. The group forgot the way to the food in the labyrinth they had found earlier.
- The other group was only exposed to classical music, and the last group was not exposed to music at all. Both of them can find their way in the maze to food more quickly.
- With further study, the scientists found frontal lobe shrinkage and hippocampal damage in the group exposed to rock music with dissonant beats.
- While some studies suggest that rock music, or perhaps the binaural beat in rock music, has a negative effect, other research supports music of choice, including rock music, as a way to activate the brain and develop additional neural pathways.
Part 4 of 5: Developing Critical Thinking Skills
Step 1. Accept the challenge
Improving critical thinking skills is a commitment to oneself. This is a process that takes time.
- Critical thinking is a method of analysis, evaluation, and decision making. Most people think only to think, and ignore the need to evaluate thinking habits and develop new and positive ways to critically evaluate and react to everyday situations.
- Realize that evaluating, changing, and developing critical thinking skills takes time and practice to get to the level you want. Just as professional athletes or musicians continue to hone their talents and abilities, you can also hone your thinking skills.
- Improved critical thinking skills require you to make decisions and accept information without prejudice, overgeneralization, general misconceptions or unfounded beliefs, deception, and rigid and narrow thinking.
- Doing concrete things helps clear up your thought process, and helps you make changes that improve critical thinking. One step can help, but an active and routine change in the long run will improve thinking skills.
Step 2. Make the most of wasted time
Avoid changing TV channels, getting frustrated when stuck, unproductive worries, and jumping from one activity or diversion to another without enjoying anything.
- Spend valuable time asking yourself what could improve your approach the next day. Ask questions that help evaluate what you did well today, or didn't do so well. Consider your strengths and weaknesses so far.
- If possible, record your answers so you can develop your thinking in that area.
Step 3. Solve problems every day
Get rid of the problems that are out of your control, and focus on the tools you need and the steps you need to take to solve the problems that are within your control.
- Don't get overwhelmed or emotional, and solve problems in an orderly, logical, and wise way.
- Consider factors such as short-term versus long-term solutions, the advantages and disadvantages of considered solutions, and develop a workable strategy to solve the problem.
Step 4. Focus each week's thinking on one intellectual standard
Accepted intellectual standards include clarity of thought, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, logical factors, and significance.
- For example, in a week focused on clarity, you might want to think about how clearly you communicated something at a meeting or when chatting with a partner or friend. Think of ways to improve your clarity.
- Also, consider how clearly other people convey information to you, or to the group.
- Clarity in writing is also important. Evaluate your written communications, other people's written communications, or writing in publications.
Step 5. Write a diary
Follow one pattern of writing, and make several entries each week.
Write down a situation you were in, how you responded to something or someone, analyze what was hidden and hidden in the situation, and what you learned about yourself in the process
Step 6. Reshape your character
Focus on intellectual attributes each month, including perseverance, independence, empathy, courage, humility, and other attributes that you like in others but not in yourself.
- Think about each attribute and develop strategies to improve that attribute. You can enter the progress in a journal.
- Focus on selected attributes for a month. Evaluate your performance continuously to note any improvements, setbacks, and other required efforts.
Step 7. Face your own egocentric thinking
Bias towards yourself is very natural in thinking.
- Ask yourself questions to identify situations that may be overly loaded with your own opinions. Include questions that help you evaluate possible actions to take based on irritation at unimportant or trivial things, saying or doing irrational things to force circumstances, or situations where you are imposing your will or opinion on others.
- Once you recognize the egocentric reaction, take steps to change your thinking to correct the behavior.
Step 8. Change the way you see things
Learn to see the good in negative situations.
Every situation is potentially positive or negative. Seeing the positive side of a situation makes you feel luckier, less frustrated, and happier. Take opportunities to turn mistakes into opportunities, and dead ends into beginnings
Step 9. Recognize your emotional reactions
Evaluate situations or thoughts that make you feel angry, sad, frustrated, or irritated.
Take this opportunity to explore what triggers negative emotions and find ways to turn them into positive reactions
Step 10. Re-evaluate the groups that have influenced your life
Groups have ways of incorporating certain beliefs or behaviors that are “better” than others.
Analyze the groups in your life that influence your decisions and actions. Consider the pressure placed on you by the group and assess whether it is positive or negative. Consider how you can adjust your reaction to negative pressure without breaking relationships or changing group dynamics
Step 11. Think how you think
Practice thinking skills and develop critical thinking skills.
Develop and implement strategies that use personal experience to further influence and develop critical thinking skills
Part 5 of 5: Using Diet and Supplements to Improve Brain Function
Step 1. Eat a healthy diet
There is a recent article evaluating diet in 550 elderly people. The study's authors looked only for evidence of a link between diet and brain function.
- The researchers found more than what they were looking for. The study revealed that eating a healthy diet was found to improve executive function in the frontal lobe.
- The results of this study also show that eating a healthy diet can fortify the brain from the aging process that causes dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
- Study participants who had the best scores were also more interested in physical activity and avoided habits such as smoking.
Step 2. Monitor your cholesterol
Although cholesterol levels do not have a direct relationship with brain function, people with low cholesterol levels have a stable blood flow that allows oxygen in the blood to be carried to the brain more effectively so that it can function optimally.
- Talk to your doctor about your cholesterol levels. There are several effective ways to deal with abnormal cholesterol levels. Interventions that your doctor recommends may include prescription drugs as well as non-drug options.
- Some study participants showed a 66% reduction in the likelihood of decreased executive function with just healthy levels of saturated fat intake contributing to lower cholesterol levels.
Step 3. Prevent medical conditions that cause cognitive decline
Beyond the value of brain function, the researchers concluded that adopting a healthy diet can prevent conditions that cause slowed thinking, cognitive decline, and decreased executive function.
Some of the medical conditions that are known to contribute to overall decline in brain function are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, vascular disease, and obesity
Step 4. Know the facts about supplements
According to information provided by the American agency, the National Institute of Health's Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, there are many products that claim benefits that actually don't exist.
- Scientific evaluations of supplements claiming benefits in improving brain function, preventing memory loss, improving memory function, treating dementia, or slowing Alzheimer's disease, reveal that these claims are unfounded.
- To date, there is no evidence to support claims of the efficacy of dietary or herbal supplements for preventing decreased brain function or improving memory function problems. These include products such as ginkgo, omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil, vitamins B and E, Asian ginseng, grape seed extract, and dates.
- Although there is no evidence to support the claims of the product's efficacy, scientists are continuing to study how much of the agent it is to see if there is any benefit.
- Research involving mindfulness techniques and music therapy is ongoing, and preliminary results show some promising evidence.
Step 5. Visit a doctor as soon as you feel symptoms
Don't put off seeing your doctor even if you try other approaches.
- While several approaches can help your condition, your doctor can provide a wealth of information that directs your treatment in a proven way.
- Many other approaches involving herbal remedies and vitamin products actually interfere with the effectiveness of prescription drugs.
- Talk to your doctor before trying a product to treat symptoms of cognitive decline or evidence of memory loss.
