University of São Paulo: Intellectual activity can improve brain performance
Cognitive reserve is extremely important for our daily lives and helps us to live better, especially in old age. But before explaining, let’s first understand what brain reserve is. It is precisely the physical space that exists in the brain, with all its neurons and structures. the doctorSônia Brucki, professor of Neurology at the USP School of Medicine (FM) and coordinator of the Cognitive and Behavior Neurology Group at Hospital das Clínicas, explains that “brain reserve is a structural reserve of the brain, number of neurons, for example, a A person who has a stroke will have a smaller brain reserve as a sequel than someone who has not had it because they will have a region of the brain that has been affected and will no longer have the neurons and other structures that they have in the normal brain”, it says.
Thus, the cognitive reserve is the functional one, built over a lifetime with good health conditions, it is a lifestyle. “We can say that it is a more functional concept in which you build this cognitive reserve throughout your life, from childhood, with good nutrition, good stimulation and also through schooling. The educational level that the individual reaches is important for all his intellectual cognitive activities during his life.
The more you read, study and do different things the better for your cognitive reserve and consequently the number of neuronal synapses between cells increases. The term cognitive reserve describes the mind’s resistance to brain damage, stroke and Alzheimer’s” explains Sônia.
The teacher comments that it is important to develop these cognitive reserves, as if it were a mental exercise. Intellectual activity will improve brain performance. There are some tips that last a lifetime. The first is that there is always time to improve cognition, regardless of age. Board games, reading habits, learning another language, playing a musical instrument, crossword puzzles, anything that arouses curiosity.