Gene Cohen and The Mature Mind

Gretchen Heuring | Gunbarrel, Colorado | 11.07.08

 

Today, I heard Gene Cohen speak in nearby Longmont. The room was packed with administrators and volunteers who work in the field of aging every day. There were also stars from our corner of the world in Boulder County, a couple of Mayors and current and former County Commissioners.

 

Dr. Cohen is a physician and a scientist and has been engaged in reseach and writing about aging for decades, so when he began to describe the history of the study of aging, the room fell silent. He has devoted a lifetime to this work. He was there for each step.

 

Gene Cohen

image by Joshua Soros

In 1974, Gene Cohen was appointed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to head the first federal research program on mental health and aging in any country in the world.

 

He told us that until the early 1970s, aging was considered to be the result of unalterable problems. Then researchers began to describe and name the various changes that occur with aging, and naming them helped to create a framework for the definition of modifiable problems. This meant that both research and policy could be designed to address the issues of aging. As a result, the US Administration on Aging was created in the mid-1970s and the field of Geriatrics was launched in the early 1980s.

 

Dr. Cohen said that people who study aging once believed that brain cells grow until about the age of three and then after than they begin to atrophy so that by old age, we have less ability to learn new things. He expained that scientists thought that neurons in the brain could not be regenerated. This thinking has percolated through society and now many people believe it is the truth.

 

It's not true, though. We do form new brain cells continuously so long as we have mental stimulation and social interaction. Over the years, scientists created methods for measuring increases in neurons and found that in a part of the brain called the Hippocampus, there is a "nest" of stem cells which generate new neurons with stimulation. That stimulation is a healthy combination of social interaction with learning and creating something new.

 

Furthermore, older brains work better than younger ones. Using MRI imaging, we have learned that younger people use the right brain predominantly and older adults use both sides.

 

In Dr. Cohen's recent book, The Mature Mind, he tells us:

"Research has identified five categories of activity that, if practised regularly, can significantly boost the power, clarity, and subtlety of the brain and mind."

These include mental exercise (something that is hard to think about), aerobic physical exercise, challenging leisure activities, strong social networks, and "mastery"

 

Mastery involves a sense of control. Activities involve learning something new, "mastering" the new thing. Examples would be learning a musical instrument, taking up embroidery, or becoming computer literate.

 

Dr. Gene Cohen introduces more concepts about aging to us this afternoon. I'm going to let you discover them for yourselves. You can find more in his two fascinating books:

 

 

 

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Namasté

Gretchen