Creative ways to charge your grey cells
Challenging the brain is key to helping prevent cognitive decline — and how much impact it can have in even a short time was powerfully demonstrated in one of our experiments for The Twinstitute series for BBC2.
Zoe Spink, 66, and her twin sister gay were given different challenges to see if they could boost their brain function. They were joined by two additional pairs of twins, with each pair then split, forming two groups of three ‘singleton’ twins.
Baseline tests showed that they all, as expected, started at roughly the same cognitive level.
Zoe’s group were launched into pottery and painting, while gay’s group were put on a special diet packed with foods that purport to boost brain health. all six underwent tests of memory, reaction time and decision-making before and after the month-long experiment.
Dr Bradley elliott, a psychologist from the University of Westminster, supervised the testing procedure for us. he firmly believes that regular sessions at any creative task (such as painting, pottery, piano- playing or even juggling) can stimulate neuroplasticity in the brain.
MAKING THE BRAIN ‘YOUNGER’
‘The theory is that using the brain to implement new creative tasks can cause changes to it, allowing people to get better at recall and memory: their brain is literally rewired as new neural pathways form,’ says Dr elliott.
he adds: ‘ There are physical changes going on in the brain as you train it. if you challenge people in this way, you find they get better in terms of memory recall and certain parts of their brains get bigger, to resemble the brains of younger people.
‘The creative activity seems to help their brains re-format in ways that allow brain cells to reconnect more effectively.’
it certainly appeared to work for Zoe. ‘art and crafts really are not my thing,’ she admits. ‘i managed to get clay all over my face and really struggled to control the pottery wheel, which you worked with a foot-pedal, when i turned up to the session in my high heels.
‘ Painting was even more traumatic. My attempts at sketching a banana and an apple were so poor, i asked if i could just mix colours and create random designs instead.’
Zoe found abstract painting more enjoyable and set up an easel so she could paint at home.
‘i found the process really relaxing,’ she says. ‘i had to concentrate hard to get the colours and designs right, and although i normally can’t sit still for long, the time flew by when i was painting.’
She says she would happily spend three hours a night dabbling away.
Research suggests that the ‘ effort and improvement’ aspects of the activity are key. learning a totally new creative skill may be more effective than simple practising an existing one.
it seems the benefits come not from the creative results — as Zoe herself would concede — but from your progress and its effect on your brain.
You don’t have to become a Rembrandt — in fact, you don’t even have to be slightly good at art. You just have to work hard at it and make some progress.
if you’re managing to make progress with an unfamiliar skill, that is a good sign of new connections in your brain.
PROOF IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN
When Zoe and the others returned to The Twinstitute to sit a follow-up brain age test, she was surprised at how much easier it seemed.
‘i found the first test impossibly difficult but i sailed through it a second time,’ she says.
The results confirmed her dramatically improved scores. On average, the ‘newly creative’ trio shaved six years off their brain age, though Zoe’s tenyear drop really stood out.
Zoe says her new hobby has had an impact in other ways, too. ‘i’m amazed that, at my stage of life, i’ve found something new i can do. it has given me a real confidence boost.’
Making this series and Zoe’s experience has inspired the two of us to take up a new challenge. We have just turned 40 and it’s easy to believe that our days of acquiring a new skill are over — but it’s never too late to learn a thing you’ve always wanted to learn. Our own father
started learning Mandarin at 79 — to go along with the kung fu lessons he had started the previous year.
He beats us both at Scrabble. He also does a weekly sketch class and, at the age of 80, is one of the most mentally agile people we know. And his Chinese is slowly improving!
Both of us were inspired by our father and by Zoe, and we are starting the piano and have new exercise goals for 2019.
In themselves, these activities are joyful but they may have profound effects on the length and quality of our lives.
Science is only just beginning to unpick how all this works. But if, in later life, you take up a new hobby or sport, it’s not just the brainwork that goes with specifically learning the task that is good for you — there are wider benefits too: increased motivation, confidence, happiness, stress relief, companionship and purpose.
These things lengthen life and, much more to the point, make it worth lengthening.