Brain health is an important topic. Your brain needs exercise, just like the rest of your body.
Historically, word searches and crossword puzzles were infamous brain-boosting activities. The downfall of relying on these activities is that they simply facilitate your brain’s ability to recall information it already knows. The brain needs more for optimal activation and increased neuronal connections.
Do not stop doing word searches and crossword puzzles, but at the same time, do not make these the only activities you incorporate for brain exercise.
4 Key Components to Optimize Brain Exercise
1. Add novelty for brain exercise
In the “Awakening from Alzheimer’s” summit, Dr. Fortanasce discusses the important role of the “mind’s eye” or hippocampus. This is where new memories are formed and recent memory is stored. The hippocampus is the first part of the brain to degenerate in Alzheimer’s disease, which makes short term memory loss a hallmark symptom.
When you learn something new or novel, you support the brain’s ability to grow new nerve cell pathways and connections. The concept of neuroplasticity gives us hope and confidence that the brain can change with new experiences, regardless of age. Research results indicate that people living with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease also develop new neurons, although at a less rapid and variable rate.
2. Add emotion for brain exercise
In addition to forming and storing memory, the hippocampus plays a part in processing social emotions within the brain’s limbic system. Most importantly, memories that have strong emotional and sensory connections are more likely to stick. Tapping into these emotional centers helps stimulate the hippocampus.
3. Add regular physical activity for brain exercise
In addition to novel and emotional experiences, Dr. Fortanasce incorporates weight-bearing exercise into his memory programs (i.e. pushing against a stable surface, which activates the tactile and proprioceptive systems). Dr. Kirk Erickson found aerobic exercise turns on genes that grow new brain cells in the brain’s memory centers.
Occupational therapists engage clients in physical activity through the use of occupations. Occupations are the meaningful activities you do in your routine…a balance of the things you need to do, but also the things you want to do: shower, garden, do a load of laundry, or learn a new dance routine.
4. Engage as many of the sensory systems as possible for brain exercise
You have 8 sensory systems that light up multiple parts of the brain and help lay the foundation for memory when activated. Sensory-rich play is highly recommended for children as a way to support brain development, so why advocate for this any less in adulthood? Knowing the brain continues to develop throughout life, engagement in sensory-rich activities is equally as important as you age.
Older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias have fewer opportunities to engage in sensory-rich activities. Numerous factors impact participation, including decreased task initiation, decreased attention, environmental overstimulation, and short term memory loss. Additionally, care partners need ongoing support to develop skills for selecting appropriate activities and facilitating engagement.
Within each brain exercise activity idea below, you will see embedded charts that provide examples of how the sensory systems are engaged.
Activities Ideas to Exercise Your Brain
1. Novel Activity: Learn a new language
First of all, choose a language you have always wanted to speak or the language of a country you have always wanted to visit. Then, commit to learning one new word each day and begin adding it to your vocabulary. The goal here is to exercise your brain. Becoming fluent or even functional in speaking a foreign language is a bonus!
- Watch a foreign movie with native subtitles, such as Mostly Martha or Intouchables
- Try a free language learning app, such as Duolingo
- Listen to music from a culture different than yours.
Bonus: learn how to play a musical instrument you enjoy hearing in these songs!
| What Sensory System is Engaged? | How is that sensory system engaged? |
|---|---|
| Visual | – See the images on the screen & the text in the subtitles or captions – Process differences in linguistic marks: ü or ñ – Process letters versus characters: A or 月 |
| Auditory | Hearing and processing new sounds, especially if the sounds conflict with what you see visually |
| Interoception | There is an emotional component to language learning. How do you express excitement versus anger in the way messages are shared, whether that be through spoken, written, or signed language? |
| Proprioception | When learning sign language, you learn new ways to position, orient, and move your body. You often do not look at your hands while they are moving, which requires body awareness and proprioceptive discrimination. |
2. Novel Activity: Use your non-dominant hand for everyday tasks
Dr. Fortanasce discusses the use of your non-dominant hand for everyday activities as a way to require your brain to do something unfamiliar. For example, entering numbers into the computer or calculator using your non-dominant hand.
Try using your non-dominant hand for other daily activities: brushing your teeth, eating a meal, writing a letter, signing your name, washing your body, coloring a picture, navigating your laptop’s touchpad, and washing dishes.
| What Sensory System is Engaged? | How is that sensory system engaged? |
|---|---|
| Tactile | Touching different objects and understanding their properties related to texture, temperature, traction, thickness, firmness, etc. |
| Proprioception | Position, orient, and move your hand in ways it is not typically used to doing (let your non-dominant hand be the moving hand versus the stabilizing hand). |
3. Emotional Activity: Stop and smell the roses…coffee, lotion, herbs, etc.
The sense of smell is unique because the olfactory system is the only sensory system that takes a direct route to the emotion and memory centers of the brain (amygdala and hippocampus). As a result, it is a powerful sensory system for eliciting memories and the range of emotions attached to those memories.
Create: Sensory Smells Jars!
Fill recycled spice containers with coffee grounds, flower petals, lotion, cotton balls sprayed with perfume/cologne, cooking herbs, citrus peels, cinnamon sticks, etc. Notably, “Smells Jars” work best when they are personally customized with familiar and relevant smells.
- First, smell the contents. Then, talk about all the memories that smell elicits. Does it bring back memories of a meal you cooked? Your dad’s fresh-brewed coffee? Your mom’s lotion? Talk about all the details you can remember.
- Even more, scan your body to identify the physical cues of each emotion (Smiling face? Sweaty palms? Tense shoulders? Butterflies in your stomach? Relaxed jaw? Watering mouth?). Talk about all the feelings you experience.
| What Sensory System is Engaged? | How is that sensory system engaged? |
|---|---|
| Olfactory | Smelling the contents of the “smells jars” |
| Interoception | – Talking about the emotions and feelings associated with the memories each smell reminds you of. – Doing a body scan to identify the physical body cues for each emotion. |
4. Emotional Activity: Mindful & Reminiscent Eating
First of all, think about a meal you remember from your childhood. Then, choose a night this week to cook that meal for dinner. When eating the food, share the details you can remember: Did your family eat this food for a special occasion? Did your family eat this meal because it was affordable and accessible?
When eating, take extra time to slow down with each bite. Before the food even touches your mouth, what smells do you notice? Does the food taste sweet, salty, or sour? Does the food feel chewy, crunchy, or smooth? Are you tasting a lot of flavors blending all at once or can you identify one flavor at a time?
| What Sensory System is Engaged? | How is that sensory system engaged? |
|---|---|
| Gustatory | Taste sweet, salty, sour, bitter, spicy, filled with garlic… |
| Olfactory | Odors rise from the mouth into the nose while chewing food. If the food smells rancid or rotten, we know not to eat it as a way to keep the body safe. |
| Tactile | – Feeling the food on your utensils, on your hands, and in your mouth |
| Proprioception | – Sucking through a straw, eating crunchy foods, or eating chewy foods provide increased proprioceptive input to the jaw (“heavy work” for the mouth) – How much pressure do you need to use with each bite? |
| Interoception | Noticing how your body feels when it is hungry versus starting to fill up. How does your stomach feel when it’s stuffed? What emotions are you experiencing? A sense of gratitude or thanksgiving? |
5. Physical Activity: Mixing Dough By Hand
Roll up your sleeves, wash your hands, and put away your mixer. Using your hands to mix and knead dough activates the somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that processes tactile input (touching the dough) and proprioceptive input (pushing hands into the dough, pulling the dough).
In a 2019 research article, Columbia neuroscientists reveal the somatosensory cortex also plays a key role in memory and reward learning.
Reward Learning: The process by which the brain connects a sequence of actions to a feel-good sensation, and is thus more likely to repeat those actions.
Unexpected Place for Learning and Memory in the Brain
| What Sensory System is Engaged? | How is that sensory system engaged? |
|---|---|
| Proprioception | – Pushing into the dough while kneading – Pulling the dough apart with your hands – Rolling the dough – Grading the amount of force that is required to thoroughly mix each ingredient into the dough |
| Tactile | Touching the dough and noticing the way its texture changes the more you mix: is it sticky, firm, stretchy, lumpy, or smooth? |
| Olfactory | Smelling the fresh dough and any ingredients that get mixed in |
| Auditory | Hearing the sound of the dough squishing between your fingers |
6. Physical Activity: Dancing
If you have any injury, illness, or medical condition that limits your mobility, impacts your activity tolerance, or causes pain, talk to your healthcare provider about ways you can safely engage in physical activity.
This is my favorite biggest-bang-for-your-buck activity that can be done while standing or sitting. Not only do you get to move your body, but you also keep your brain engaged to recall each dance step.
Research shows aerobic physical activity can decrease your risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 50% while also improving brain volume. Furthermore, dancing is FUN making it good for the mind and soul! Try freestyle or add some novelty by challenging yourself to learn a new type of dance: country line dancing, ballroom dancing, swing dancing, or hip hop.
| What Sensory System is Engaged? | How is that sensory system engaged? |
|---|---|
| Vestibular | – Moving your head into different positions (think about those dips, ladies!) – Slow, linear vestibular input with back & forth swaying (calming) – Fast, rotary vestibular input with spinning & twisting (alerting) |
| Proprioception | – Moving your body through space with different positions and orientations – Grading the amount of force that is required for each dance move (example: toe touch vs. stomp) |
| Tactile | Touching during partner dancing |
| Auditory | – Listening to the music – Hearing the beats of the rhythm counted aloud |
7. Physical Activity: Create a Sensory Garden
If you have any injury, illness, or medical condition that limits your mobility, impacts your activity tolerance, or causes pain, talk to your healthcare provider about ways you can safely engage in physical activity.
All gardens are sensory-rich by their nature. To create a “Sensory Garden“, there is more intention with choosing non-toxic, pesticide-free plants and decor that purposefully stimulate multiple senses. It is good practice to include raised garden beds in addition to plants in the ground, making the experience accessible for people of all ages and physical abilities.
Gardening and other manual labor tasks provide full body exercise while supporting health of the heart, lungs, and brain.
| What Sensory System is Engaged? | How is that sensory system engaged? |
|---|---|
| Proprioception | – Manually digging a garden – Scooping, pouring, moving dirt/rocks/clay – Pulling weeds – Pushing a wheelbarrow – Balance when walking between stepping stones and across different thresholds/surfaces |
| Vestibular | – Moving the head into a downward position while planting – Garden swing or hammock for calming linear vestibular input |
| Visual | – Seeing a variety of shapes, colors, plant varieties – High contrast colors – Animal activity (bees, butterflies, squirrels, bugs) – Plants swaying with the movement of the wind |
| Tactile | – Touching plants of different textures (lambs ear, feather reed grass, moss) – Pulling weeds by hand – Digging in the dirt with hands, barefoot experiences |
| Auditory | – Wind chimes (metal, wood, recycled plastic) – Birds attracted with bird feeders or birdbaths – Sound of swishing plants that blow in the wind (switchgrass, feather reed grass), fountains, etc. |
| Olfactory | – Smelling the blooming plants (lilac, peony, pine) – Herb garden (rosemary, lavender, thyme, basil, lemon verbana, mint) |
| Gustatory | – Fruit bushes (blueberries, strawberries) – Vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes) – Edible flowers and herbs |
Other tips for brain health
There are numerous other research-supported tools to optimize brain health, including the following:
- maximize sleep quality and quantity
- manage stress
- eat a wholesome diet
- have supportive and loving social connections
In conclusion, the brain is a fascinating and complex structure that requires stimulation. Keep moving your body and engage your brain with novel, emotional, sensory-rich activities to optimize your health. Just like the rest of your body needs regular exercise, your brain needs exercise too.
DISCLAIMER: Although I am an occupational therapist and the information compiled is based on years of training and clinical experience, this is NOT a place for skilled therapeutic intervention. The ideas presented on this website and in products are for informational/educational purposes only and are not medical advice.
A website does not replace an individualized plan of care developed as the result of assessment, clinical observation, and collaboration between therapist, client, and care partner(s). If you are concerned about the cognitive, sensory, or functional abilities of yourself or someone you know, then you should talk with your physician or your therapist.