Article: How You Can Keep Your Brain from Shrinking

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The old saying, “You have nothing without your health,” should specifically include mental and physical health. Just as muscles will atrophy without exercise, the brain will shrink unless challenged with new tasks and things to learn. If the brain loses neurons and connections between neurons, the overall brain will get smaller. Some types of atrophy happen evenly across the brain while others can occur in specific locations. The latter kind is called focal atrophy. Brain shrinkage, clinically known as cerebral atrophy, happens slowly with age or can result from diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, HIV infection, stroke, or physical trauma to the head. (clevelandclinic.org) Doctors determine brain atrophy in different ways, including sophisticated instruments such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CT scans and testing for problem-solving ability, physical coordination, memory tests, and speech patterns to peer into brain health.

Recent studies have linked very subtle brain atrophy to a common behavior—overuse of smartphones. In a literature review published in Frontiers in Psychology, the authors from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, noted several effects of smartphone usage on cognitive brain function. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) They focused on several research areas, including the impact of smartphone usage on memory and learning. Research on deeper dependence on smartphones to recall facts and figures has implied that heavy users of smartphones tend to perform poorer on memory recall tests. One study showed that spatial memory of where you have been diminishes using GPS while driving. Moreover, a study published in the Journal of the Association of Consumer Research suggests that even having a smartphone nearby on the desk or in a pocket will reduce working memory capacity and problem-solving compared to having the phone in another room. (journals.uchicao.edu)

Smartphone usage appears to affect memory and learning in some instances, but the good news is that the brain can repair and grow. Research has shown that even adult brains can grow and repair neurons under certain conditions. In animal and human studies, an interesting connection between physical activity and learning has emerged in the generation and maturation of neurons in the hippocampus. The hippocampus refers to a part of the brain that processes emotions and plays a crucial role in learning and memory. In a peer-reviewed article titled “Why and How Physical Activity Promotes Experience-Induced Brain Plasticity,” the authors describe a two-step process by which the adult brain generates new neurons. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) They found that physical activity such as walking or running stimulates neuronal precursor cells’ development. These precursor cells form after physical activity, but there needs to be a second element for these cells to mature into functioning new neurons in the hippocampus—a challenging, engaging, or new environment.

Over seventy years ago, researchers found by accident that an enhanced environment proved essential for improved learning and memory. It turned out that some scientists and lab workers were taking their test animals home with them at the end of the day instead of keeping them in the lab, and with this added stimulus, these animals performed much better in the learning and memory tests. Such a finding led to a theory connecting environmental enhancement to nerve development in adult animals. Environmental enhancement refers to seeing or doing something new or challenging, such as walking or jogging a new route, cooking a new dish, meeting with others, going to the library and browsing new titles, drawing a picture, and so much more. A large amount of research over the past seventy years supports the idea that physical activity alone does not grow nerves. However, an varying, challenging, and even tricky environment must also be present for the immature neurons to develop into fully functional neurons that grow the brain.

Physical and mental health go hand in hand; the brain needs exercise just as the body does to stay strong. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and HIV or physical trauma can damage the brain and cause it to shrink or atrophy. Research also indicates a more subtle but measurable decrease in brain function, such as memory and cognition, affects heavy smartphone users. However, this is not a one-way street. Physical activity, along with an enhanced environment such as learning something new, like cooking a new recipe or playing a game, kicks off a two-stage process of generating new neurons in the human brain’s hippocampus. The hippocampus plays a central role in learning and memory. So physical activity such as walking and running and an enhanced environment will generate new healthy neurons even in the adult brain. Putting down the smartphone, exercising and enhancing your environment by jogging a new route, trying a new recipe, going to the library and getting some poems to memorize, playing a game with your kids, learning a new instrument or song can not only be fun but can literally keep your brain from shrinking.

Dr. Smith’s career in scientific and information research spans the areas of bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, toxicology, and chemistry. He has published a number of peer-reviewed scientific papers. He has worked over the past seventeen years developing advanced analytics, machine learning, and knowledge management tools to enable research and support high-level decision making. Tim completed his Ph.D. in Toxicology at Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Washington.

You can buy his book on Amazon in paperback and in kindle format here.