ABOUT THE BOOK Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises FROM OUR EDITORS The Barnes & Noble Review Most of us find that as we get older, we tend to develop routines that we rarely deviate from. We get up at the same time, shower the same way, eat the same thing for breakfast, get to work via the same route, and so on throughout the day, the week, the month. But as neurobiologist Lawrence Katz and coauthor Manning Rubin write in Keep Your Brain Alive , sticking to routines we never vary can be literally brain-deadening - tasks that are so familiar can be done at an almost subconscious level, and the brain never needs to form new associations and connections. Katz and Rubin write that new advances in neurobiology have let us understand that the mental decline that sometimes accompanies aging is often a result of the thinning out of the connections between brain cells; we also know under which conditions the brain is prone to strengthening connections and forming new ones. Katz and Rubin have conceived a set of simple mental exercises they call Neurobics that are designed to give the brain a workout that stimulates the senses to form new connections and can lead to a stronger ability to learn new things and retrieve what we already know from memory. They contend that daily life is rich with opportunities to activate our senses and work our brains in extraordinary ways - we just need to learn how to spot them and take advantage of them. Some are so simple they sound silly: Try showering with your eyes closed, for instance, and you'll wake up your brain by stimulating your tactile senses. Or shake up your ingrained associations by having family members switchtheiraccustomed seats at the dinner table. Some exercises help you introduce novelty into your life, such as shopping at a farmers' market instead of the produce aisle at your regular supermarket; others help stimulate memory, such as associating smells with a specific task. None of the exercises are particularly onerous - some can be downright fun. Keep Your Brain Alive will show you how to shake up your routines and stimulate your senses to keep you mentally fit for years to come. FROM THE PUBLISHER No more punch lines that just slipped away. No more names on the tip of your tongue. No more senior moments! Drawing on cutting-edge neurological research. "How to Keep Your Brain Alive With Neurobic Exercises" brings help to everyone whose memory is starting to slip. Devised by Dr. Lawrence Katz, a professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center, and Manning Rubin, author of 60 Ways to Relieve Stress in 60 Seconds, here is a regimen of mental cross-training that can be done anywhere, by anyone, at any time of day. The premise is simple: When you exercise the brain, you release natural growth factors called neurotrophins, which in turn enhance the brain's level of fitness. And nothing so easily stimulates the brain as breaking routines and using the five senses in new and unexpected ways. So if you're right-handed, wake up tomorrow and brush your teeth with your left hand. Or close your eyes before you get into the car and then get the key into the ignition. Every time you open a new circuit in your brain, it's like doing a round of mental sit-ups, without the pain. SYNOPSIS Keep Your Brain Alive presents the first brain exercise program scientifically based on the adult brain's ability to produce its own natural brain food. Developed by a leading neurological research scientist and the author of 60 Ways to Relieve Stress in 60 Seconds, the program offers 83 simple "neurobic" exercises to fight off the effects of mental aging by helping to prevent memory loss and increase mental fitness.

Cognition  --  Age  Factors,  Cognition  --  Problems,  Exercises,  Etc,  Memory  --  Age  Factors,  Cognition  --  Problems,  Exercises,  Etc,  Aging  --  Psychological  Aspects