LEARNING NEW LESSONS

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!” In fact, the saying is 300 years old; first appearing in Divers Proverbs, by: Nathan Baily, 1721. It could be therefore argued that it’s all too accurate & habits really do die hard. However, in order for such a turn of phrase to last for as long as it has is because people still keep trying to teach- which more importantly means people are continuing to try to learn.

BUILDING THE BRAIN

Before we’re even born our brains are already busy at work building itself. We begin development of the brain at just 25 days into gestation, & this growth isn’t complete until we’re about 25 years old. Just like everything else in the human body, the timeframe can vary per individual. No two brains are the same; not even identical twins. Identical twins may share the same genetic code, but in the case of each person, the brain makes anatomical changes & forms to fit that individual’s learning path & life interactions. So, in essence, we are teaching our own brains on how to be who we are.

THE TEACHING TIMELINE

Each age group has specific skills that they absorb best based on where their brain is in its overall lifespan. For example: if you’re learning how to swim you can begin lessons as early as 2 years, if you’re hoping to add playing an instrument to your repertoire than 9 is prime time, & if you’re wishing to acquire a second language the best age to do so is 12. While you may be noticing that most growth seems to occur early in life it would be poor thinking to count the elderly out. In this day & age 25 years old is only a fraction of someone’s life. Discoveries in the chemical & medical professions occur most at 41 years old, an age when many people have wrongly been deemed over the hill. Additionally, the average age awarded to Nobel Prize winners in the field of science is 58.

There is a reason for this too. With life experience comes an intricately designed better & larger labyrinth of neural pathways already mapped out for your cerebrum; the part of the brain that holds the lion’s share of responsibilities including movement, speech, body regulation, judgment, logical & emotional thinking, & the basis of this newsletter; learning, under its helm.

MEMORY IS THE MVP

Overall, the life lessons that we accumulate over time are invaluable & make the elderly among us excel past their younger peers in creativity & knowledge. Unfortunately, the one area that youth tends to trump their older counterparts in is memory. Memory & learning go hand in hand like peanut butter & jelly (or if you’re like me a peanut butter, banana, & jelly) sandwich. This explains why when it comes to absorbing new skills, as opposed to the older generations’ ability to use known skills to create new material, youth seems to encapsulate them. The trouble with knowledge is being able to remember it. Memory starts slipping almost immediately after the brain is done fully forming- starting with recognition of faces. Long term memory starts fading along with those faces shortly after around 30; short term close to follow, after a brief plateau of efficiency, around 44. Against popular belief the brain is not a muscle but instead an organ. Like any organ in the body, we need to keep it healthy through healthy habits. What makes this difficult is what we’ve already established: the brain is unique & cannot be replaced with another should we fail to maintain it. Furthermore, memory does not function within our traditional idea of maintenance. When we think of maintenance, we think of keeping something in the same way we got it for as long as possible. Herein lies the problem: brains are not a machine, they’re an organic material that needs to grow as we do. If done properly, brains will look nowhere near the same towards the end of life as they did before the beginning. Think of a brain like hot wax: when we’re young & newly poured the brain is hot, pliable, & malleable to change. As we age & cool, we harden with the ideas that have set into place. In order to soften the material to make room for new impressions i.e. in order to improve our memory it’s not enough to just continue completing & conducting the same skills that we already know. If we want to stimulate our minds & brains, we need to challenge it by learning new skills that require new thought processes: we need to pave new pathways within the labyrinth.

This is where the young take their lead. In our earliest stages of life we are constantly learning different material, constantly feeding our brain new information, which most importantly means the brain is constantly stimulated & working. There’s far less room to forget to continue running when you never stopped. Humans’ invaluable ability to never have the brain tire, as it would were it any other organ or muscle, is integral in keeping the neurons firing. Individuals who continued working past retirement, whether that be physically, mentally, or both showed higher signs of memory retention. Individuals who continued working on learning new skills showed the greatest retention of all. While continuing to read, write, complete puzzles, & have social interaction are by no means chopped liver in terms of value in brain food, the steak & potatoes are fresh new skills.

NEW TRICKS FOR OLD DOGS

It has been proven that certain fields of study increase brain activity & memory recollection to benefit the elderly. Notably: technology & coding done by individuals 65 & older was shown to be 87% accurate after 3 months of dedicated learning. Conversely, only 34% of participants followed through. For those that did there was a 96% increase in quality of life daily use. Yet as stated, it is difficult to gain participants. The question of can we teach them becomes how we make these lessons readily available. While what you’re learning doesn’t necessarily have to be tech related, it should be unfamiliar. Old dogs are perfectly capable of learning new tricks, & while repetition may be on the menu, something to remember for the young is that every trick we know is because of these so called “old dogs.” Every new idea needed the discoveries made before them to lay the foundation for what we know now.

Until next month, Haley Brewer

For more information on the topics above please feel free to peruse the sources below: