from LIFE magazine, July 1994(?)
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         How to Make Your Dendrites Grow and Grow

What can the average person do to strengthen his or her mind?
"The important thing is to be actively involved in areas
unfamiliar to you," says Arnold Scheibel, head of UCLA's Brain
Research Institute. "Anything that's intellectually challenging
can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dentritic growth,
which means it adds to the computational reserves in your
brain."

So pick something that's diverting, and most important,
unfamiliar. A computer programmer might try sculpture; a
ballerina might try marine navigation. Here are some other
stimulating suggestions from brain researchers:

> Do puzzles. "I can't stand crosswords," says neuroscientist
 Antionio Damasio of the University of Iowa, "but they're a good
 idea." Psychologist Sherry Willis of Pennsylvania State
 University says, "People who do jigsaw puzzles show greater
 spatial ability, which you use when you look at a map."

>Try a musical instrument. "As soon as you decide to take up the
 violin, your brain has a whole new group of muscle-control
 problems to solve. Bu that's nothing compared with what the
 brain has to do before the violinist can begin to read notes on
 a page and correlate them with his or her fingers to create
 tones. This is a remarkable high-level type of activity," says
 Scheibel.

> Fix something. Learn to reline your car's brakes or repair a
 shaver, suggests Zaven Khachaturian, a brain expert at the
 National Instutute of Aging.  "My basement is full of electronic
 gadgets, waiting to be repaired. The solution is not the
 important thing. It's the challenge."

>Try the arts. If your verbal skills are good, buy a set of
 watercolors and take a course. If your drawing skills are good,
 start a journal or write poetry.

>Dance. "We keep seeing a relationship between physical activity
 and cognitive maintenance," days Harvard brain researcher
 Marilyn Albert. "We suspect that moderately strenuous exercise
 leads to the development of small blood vessels. Blood carries
 oxygen, and oxygen nourishes the brain." But be sure the
 activity is new and requires thinking. Square dancing. ballet or
 tap is preferable to twisting the night away.

>Date provocative people. Better yet, marry one of them. Willis
 suggests that the most pleasant and rewarding way to increase
 your dendrites is to "meet and interact with intelligent,
 interesting people." Try tournament bridge, chess, or even
 sailboat racing.

And remember, researchers agree that it's never too late. Says
Scheibel: "All of life should be a learning experience, not just
for the trivial reasons but because by continuing the learning
process, we are challenging our brain and therefore building
brain circuitry. Literally. This is the way the brain operates."
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