BUILD BRAIN VOLUME

Forcing the brain to find new ways to solve problems builds connections between neurons, similar to the way strength training builds muscle.

Change up your activities

‘Trying new things helps build new connections in the brain,’ says Michelle Schoffro Cook, author of Boost Your

Brainpower In 60 Seconds. Learning how to speak a new language or mastering an instrument, for example, has each been shown to increase the size of the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory. But even far less lofty changes, like taking a new route when you go for a walk, can have a boosting effect.

Calculate in your head

Relying on your phone’s calculator robs you of a chance to build and maintain brain pathways. ‘While driving a car doesn’t weaken our body, it definitely reduces the number of opportunities for us to walk, cycle, or run,’ Cook says. ‘In the same way, using a calculator can reduce opportunities to strengthen the brain.’ Mathematical skills need to be reinforced, or the brain will eliminate

neural connections that aren’t in use, she says. Keep your brain functioning at all levels by doing mental maths the next time you’re able to go out to eat – or jot down your calculations on a napkin.

Navigate with a real map

Following GPS directions is a missed opportunity to grow your mind, in this case, to build areas of the brain that control spatial skills. A study of London taxi drivers who navigated the city’s tangled streets without technological assistance showed that the cabbies’ brains grew as they learned their way around. Similarly, people in a University of Nottingham driving simulation study who navigated built more accurate maps of the route in their minds than those following sat nav.