A single human brain makes over 100 trillion synapses.
Alzheimer’s is the result of loosing synapses.
At 9:52 neuroplasticity, cognitive reserve and what we learned by studying 678 retired nun.s
At 12:00 cognitive reserve=more functional synapses… we build cognitive reserve by increasing our formal education, high degree of literacy, in people who "engage regularly in mentally stimulating activity".
Mentally stimulative activity creates many extra back up synapses via recruitment of multiple pathways. These extra pathways provide cognitive recall when some synaptic pathways have been compromised by Alzheimers.
Mentally stimulative activity is not crossword puzzles which is the retrieval of information you already know. Instead, pave new neural roads: new books, learning new languages, Italian, Japanese, learning from new Ted Talks, meeting new friends, taking notes.
Mentally stimulative activity is rich in meaning that recruits sight, sound, association, emotion or in other terms, the four quadrants of Barbara Clark's integrative learning model: kinesthetic, sensory, intuitive, cognitive activities.
People with Alzheimers don’t lose their emotional memory. "You might not remember what I said, but you will remember how I made you feel."
Neuroscientist Lisa Genova is also the author of among other books, Still Alice which was the book behind the movie of the same name.
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