8 Ways to Keep Our Brains Plastic After Turning 25

The change in views

I still remember when back in 2013 I was turning 20. It was one year after high school graduation and I was psyched about the changes that were taking place. Entering a university, moving to another city, all of it was still new to me. But one day something struck me… I’m aging! An odd idea for a 20-year-old to have, but haven’t scientists been claiming that at the age of 25 a person’s brain matures and it’s all downhill from there? Will I seriously begin to lose my mental capabilities just 5 years from now?

Something didn’t seem right about all of this. People who are older than me didn’t seem like walking lunatics, at least not all of them. Still, my mounting anxiety led me to do some research on this topic. To my relief, I found out that 25 isn’t the beginning of an end. At least, it doesn’t have to be.

Back in the year 1998 an American neuroendocrinologist Bruce S. McEwen received the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Grant to support his research in trying to understand what effects stress has on the brain. While his study confirmed that stress can cause shrinkage in the hippocampus area, he also found that the impact does not necessarily resolve in permanent damage. This marked a great paradigm shift — a discovery that the brain has an inherent capacity to adapt and remodel itself in order to cope with various changes and challenges. Because of his work, a new term emerged — neuroplasticity.

“Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form new connections and pathways and change how its circuits are wired; neurogenesis is the even more amazing ability of the brain to grow new neurons, even after reaching a certain age.”

Why is neuroplasticity important?

If we still lived in the early XIX century consensus, we’d believe that new neurons grow only in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. As a consequence, the reality for those who have suffered a trauma or haven’t developed important skills while they were young would seem bleak. Fortunately, now we know that this is not the case. Our brains continue to grow new neurons and form connections even after various injuries or the reach of old age. Furthermore, it is able to reorganize its old pathways to better adapt to the changing circumstances. Maybe that is why humans are capable of living in so many varying surroundings. But one fact is hard to deny. It does seem that older people have more trouble adapting to environmental changes. Why might that be the case?

The difference between crystallized and fluid intelligence.

Back in 1963 a British American psychologist Raymond Cattell devised a novel and quite controversial method of researching, studying, and labeling intelligence. According to Cattell, intelligence can be split into two parts: crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence. While referring to Cattell’s work, John L. Horn explains that:

“Fluid intelligence (gf) refers to basic processes of reasoning and other mental activities that depend only minimally on prior learning (such as formal and informal education) and acculturation.”

“Crystallized intelligence (gc) refers to learned procedures and knowledge. It reflects the effects that experience and acculturation have on a person throughout time.”

According to Richard E. Brown, fluid intelligence peaks when a person is in his or her mid-adolescence, whereas crystallized intelligence continues to grow over time. For this reason, we needn’t worry about our crystalized intelligence. The more we learn and experience — the better it will be. What we should be concerned with is our intelligence’s fluidity, which, as known, veins throughout time. Fortunately, there are several ways how we can aid our brain to remain plastic, adaptable, and fluid.

Things that keep our brains happy

1. Exercise

Keeping our bodies healthy and active greatly increases our brain’s plasticity. Studies show that aerobic and high-intensity exercise increases the production of a protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which has a huge role in the production of new brain cells. BDNF also helps neurons to form and maintain connections. If you don’t enjoy shocking your system with high-intensity workouts, other types of exercise can help as well. Pick up a sport that you like and remember — a healthy mind resides in a moving body.

2. Learn new things

Have you ever wanted to try something new? Drawing, swimming, learning a foreign language? Learning something new reorganizes our brain. Giving it novel stimuli to work with is one of the keys to bringing its plastic nature back to life. If you have been putting off learning a skill, now is a great time to jump right at it. As the Chinese proverb says:

“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

3. Explore new surroundings

This is very closely related to the second point, as traveling and getting to know new places is part of learning something new. Traveling is great to break one’s set patterns, as new surroundings, cultures, and sights signal our brain that it has to map out the changes and adapt appropriately. If you don’t have a chance to travel abroad, don’t worry. When you’re going out for a stroll or walking home from work, take a new route. You’ll be surprised at how much exploring new surroundings or looking at the old ones afresh will help your mind to remain active and alert.

4. Limit stress

Stress is shown to be one of the most counterproductive factors for an agile, fluid brain. As stress forces parts of the brain to shut down, different areas stop communicating with each other and informing the whole. In a life-or-death situation that might be a good thing, as thinking and processing tend to waste valuable energy and time. Unfortunately, if it spills over to our everyday life — it’ll cause problems. Not to worry though. By conducting your daily life appropriately the amount of stress you experience will not impact you negatively. Quality rest, healthy meals, regular exercise, and meaningful interactions do wonders. If that’s not enough, learn about meditation, study stoicism, practice yoga. Sometimes what we need is to readjust our frameworks. As Wayne W. Dyer said:

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

5. Eat well

60% of your brain is made of fat. What does that mean? Well, for starters, now we know that not all fat is bad! But what are the so-called “good fats”? Many nutritionists say that eating foods that are high in Omega-3 will help your brain maintain its levels of DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid that is a primary structural component of the human brain, cerebral cortex, skin, and retina). DHA and exercise are also shown to increase the production of BDNF, which, as discussed before, is important for growing and maintaining brain cells.

A diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods is also high on the list of importance if one wants to keep his or her brain young and healthy. Foods such as berries, curcumin, fatty fish, dark leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, peppers, green tea, avocadoes, tomatoes, and cacao are anti-inflammatory powerhouses, which help our bodies to preserve healthy brain cells and tissue.

6. Meditate (learn how to observe)

As stated in a study conducted on practicing Tibetan Buddhists by the faculty of Wisconsin-Madison University:

“The findings from studies in this unusual sample as well as related research efforts suggest that, over the course of meditating for tens of thousands of hours, the long-term practitioners had actually altered the structure and function of their brains.”

Research has shown that meditation changes the way people respond to various distractions, emotions, and thoughts. Also, it thickens areas of the brain that are responsible for attention and processing sensory input. Now, not all of us are experienced meditators like the test’s subjects, but the willingness to spend a couple of minutes a day performing seated meditation may prove to be good for our mood, health, and general wellbeing. Although Soto Zen and Vipassana are the most common forms of meditation, it won’t hurt to research some other forms of meditation, but be wary! There are many charlatans out there. If something doesn’t seem right — it probably isn’t.

7. Rest, sleep, and recovery

Brains need various things to remain plastic. After working on the yang side of things (exercise) now it’s time to turn to the yin aspects (rest and recovery). As put by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

“Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself.”

During deep sleep, the brain processes all the information which it has gathered during the waking hours. During this process, it cleans and renews itself, strengthening the memories that are important and pruning those which are not. That is why most of our learning actually happens at night, while we sleep. If the day is the time for active learning, the night is for memory consolidation. That is why sleeping less than 6 hours a day is never a good thing. Sleep deprivation reduces our body’s ability to ward off infections and inflammation. It also limits other vital functions, not to mention brain plasticity or information processing. That is why not resting when necessary is not productive. As put by Mokokoma Mokhonoana:

“Relaxing brings weakness when done by a muscle; but brings strength, when done by a person.”

8. Intermittent fasting (increases BDNF, autophagy)

The last thing to talk about for today is fasting. Through millennia, many cultures have practiced various forms of fasting for religious, mental, and health reasons. As it was inscribed on an Egyptian pyramid more than 4500 years ago:

“Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor.”

Why is fasting important and what kind of neurophysiological benefits does it bring? To start with, researchers have found that fasting has a similar effect on the body as exercise. It reduces inflammation, limits oxidative stress, and intensifies the growth of mitochondria in neurons. Fasting also helps the body to repair DNA and utilize alternative energy sources (such as ketones). Finally, fasting has been shown to increase learning and memory abilities. There are a couple of ways to experience the benefits of fasting. Some of them include fasting intermittently (also called the 16/8 principle) or restricting one’s daily caloric intake (basically, eating less).

Plasticity over stability?

At the end of our talk, it is important to note, that too much plasticity is not always a good thing. Our brains have developed in a way that helps them to represent the world coherently. If there was no consistency in their representations, it would become very hard for us to navigate our surroundings and make sense of them. Let’s take vision, for example. What would happen if your vision began to alter every time you look at an object? What if you couldn’t recall its previous image, shape, or form?

Brains, being organs of interpretation, select what best suit our needs for the given circumstance. Maybe it’s not a fluke that we don’t see infrared, ultraviolet, or x-ray radiation. Maybe it’s ok that we don’t hear very high or low pitched sounds. The idea of activating our brain’s latent capacity to experience electromagnetic vibrations that are far beyond our everyday reach (if there is any) might seem tempting, but every update should be brought on stable ground.

As shown in autistic and schizophrenic people, change without stability is chaos. So, if you decide to take the magic pill and alter your consciousness — be careful. It might be intriguing to think about all the wonderful experiences and changes that it will bring but plan ahead on how you’ll recover and reach a new psychological consensus after the experiment is over. If you don’t think that your psyche’s stability is necessary, you probably haven’t yet experienced the loss of it.

Thanks for reading!

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