A short talk by Marisa Peer explaining the concept of ‘neurobics’—doing novel activities to form new neural pathways, enlarge the hippocampus, and keep the brain sharp with age. She gives practical examples (e.g., brushing teeth with the non-dominant hand, learning new skills, using technology) and emphasizes maintaining novelty throughout life to preserve memory and cognitive vitality.
Chapters
I'm going to tell you about my favorite, favorite thing, which is something called neurobics. Neurobics makes your brain younger. And I just told you about the brain being brutal. You see, what the brain loves is newness. Anyone here with kids, they start to crayon, and then they get up and go over here and look at a movie, and then they go over there and crayon a bit more, and then they go and get juice. Then they put on the tv and they do new stuff all the time. They don't sit still. And as we get older, some of us sit still for too long. And so what the brain likes is newness. And neurobics just means doing something new. So here's what neurobics means. When you clean your teeth, you want to clean your teeth with the wrong hand. You want to put your. It's very good to do this with high heels. Put your leg behind you, close your eyes, and clean your teeth like that. See, I can do it in stilettos because I practice not to go on stage here. I like neurobics. It just means do something new. I have my mother now doing sudoku on an iPad. My mother's on Facebook. My mother's on Skype. She's got a really young mind. My dad was a professor. He's had cancer three times. He's had two strokes. But his mind is so sharp because he has that. Use it. So if you want to have a really sharp memory into your 90s, you want to be sharp as a tack and remember stuff, you've got to do new stuff, and preferably new stuff that's young. So singing, dancing, laughing, having sex. That's not new. But keep doing a lot of that in new places if you can. But also do neurobics. And the other thing the brain loves. You see, neurobics means mental exercises that make a new brain pathway. So neurobics just clean your teeth with the wrong hand. Then you make. That's a mental exercise that makes a new brain pathway. You make a bigger hippocampus, which gives you a better memory and stronger brain power.
