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Bringing Together Memories under Pressure

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Can you remember the last time you were in a high stress situation? Perhaps it was before a major test, or the last time you had to speak in public.  We can all relate to that heart pounding and nerve-wracking feelings that seem to grip your entire body. I like to use the example of walking up to bat in a key situation in a baseball game. You feel the anxiety  and your heart pounding with every step as you inch move closer to the plate. You step up to bat, zone in, and do your best to perform at your highest level.

After not only this event, but any anxiety provoking situation is over some unique and fascinating things happen with your memory. Regardless of the outcome, If you’re like me sometimes you walk away and remember every vivid detail. On the other hand sometimes you walk away, especially when you’re really feeling excess pressure,  and you say to yourself, “what happened out there? I can’t remember a thing it all just happened so fast”.  Interestingly, there is neural evidence supporting this phenomenon,  and a wealth of information exists on how your memory if affected by anxiety provoking situations.

Spatial episodic memory is enhanced

This type of memory refers to your ability to remember what you saw, heard, and what happened.  The main stress hormone cortisol floods into your brain’s memory center causing increased brain activity when faced with a stressful situation. This increased activity helps you bring together the information into one, coherent story. Overall, this type of memory Memory consolidation, is increased when stress is added.

Memory recollection is hindered

Wait a minute, if your ability to form memories is stronger how can your ability to remember them be weaker? Although these memories are stronger, they are a little harder to get at. This is a protective mechanism caused by the coding of these events in the first place. The same activity that helps encode these memories simultaneously hurts retrieval. You don’t want to relive the stress of these events over and over and have them be at the forefront of your thoughts at all times.  In fact, there is evidence that when this process is chemically imbalanced, and these memories are played on repeat in the brain, there is a higher risk for PTSD.

Working Memory is hindered

Most parts of your memory are improved when stressed, but your working memory is hurt. Working memory is your ability to take in new information and use it in an ongoing task. The fact that working memory is hindered fits with that feeling of being “zoned in”. If you are only working on one thing this is your brains way of telling you to focus on this one important item and ditch the rest.

How much stress is too much?

Now this is where that feeling when you walk away from the event and say, “what just happened out there”. When your brain is flooded with too much cortisol (stress hormone) s your memory is hindered. This process follows the curve shown below. Some stress is good and improves your memory as it follows a curve leading up to ideal consolidation. However, there is a point where this consolidation begins to slope down and increased stress/cortisol has an adverse effect.

Memory as it relates to stress and anxiety is a complicated process with enough neuroscience to make your head spin for years. The next time you find yourself in a stressful situation, maybe take a second to take a deep breath, find your ideal between Zen and freaking out, and thank your memory for zoning in and helping you function at your highest level.

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Contextual Fear Conditioning and Exposure Therapy

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Contextual Fear Conditioning

There are various types of conditioning experiments that have been used across scientific disciplines, nearly everyone has heard of Pavlov’s dogs, and classical conditioning. A different type of conditioning exercise comes in the form of fear conditioning where mice or rats are placed in an unfamiliar environment, and subjected to an aversive stimulus, such as a mild shock to the foot.  After typically just one session, there is a long-lasting change in the animals behavior when presented with this novel environment.  This type of conditioning is called “contextual fear conditioning”.   Whenever the mice or rats are subjected to this environment associated with the shock, they “freeze”.  The act of freezing shows access to a “state dependent memory” based on the context of their current situation.  A state dependent memory is a memory that can only be accessed or triggered by the current mind state of the organisms. This discovery based on mouse models is now being seen as a use for humans against PTSD in the form of Exposure Therapy.

 

EXPOSURE THERAPY

Exposure therapy is the act of exposing a patient to a source of their anxiety, in a similar context, without any intention to create danger or ability to harm the patient physically.  This therapy relies on state dependent memory to access memories that the patient’s brain may have withheld in an attempt to protect them, which later could lead to an underlying cause of the individual’s PTSD.  Examples include virtual reality scenarios, such as swimming in the ocean for someone who was attacked by a shark, driving through a battleground for a combat veteran, or something as seemingly innocuous as petting a dog for another individual. The point is to access these memories by manipulating the brain into this specific arousal state.  By repeated exposure to these situations, it helps take the power that these situations have to cause stress and gives it back to the individual.

 

Is It For Everyone?

Right now, while everyone suffering from anxiety, or PTSD can be treated by exposure therapy to some point, it is important to note it is not as effective for some groups of people. For example, it has been found that combat veterans do not respond as well to treatment as other groups who have undergone trauma.  Sexual assault traumatized individuals demonstrated the most positive outcome from their treatments.  With the premium that is now being placed on mental health, and the support that can be garnered for individuals seeking treatment for PTSD, anxiety disorders, and depression; exposure therapy and it’s future evolution could play an important role in the treatment of mental health disorders.

Disease/Health

Why do only some people develop lasting symptoms of PTSD?

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A snowy evening…

During my sophomore year of high school, I narrowly missed a head-on collision with a semi. I was driving after school to a cello lesson in a neighboring town about 40 minutes away. It was late February, snowing, and the roads were terrible. Coming into a curve on the narrow two-lane highway, a semi crossed the center line into my lane. Quickly trying to avoid the crash, I swerved to avoid the truck and ended up fishtailing before sliding off of the highway into the ditch. I was shaken up, but physically ok. While this experience was traumatic and definitely taught me the value of snow tires and driving slowly, I did not develop any lasting symptoms. So why do some people develop lasting symptoms after traumatic experiences while others do not?

Inside the Brain

While our brains are truly remarkable machines in so many respects, they’re fundamentally focused on finding the way to keep us alive while expending as little energy as possible. So, when you experience a stressful, sudden event, your brain activates the fight or flight response. A rush of hormones including adrenaline and glucocorticoids is released to help you survive. In my case, the adrenaline kicked in, and before I’d even processed that I was in danger, my foot was on the brake and I was pointed towards the ditch. At the same time, glucocorticoids were released in my hippocampus, a brain structure critical in memory formation, so that my brain could form a memory of the event. These glucocorticoids help trigger memory formation by beginning a cascade of signals within neurons resulting in modifications to histones, a family of proteins that help store and organize your DNA. These modified histones expose specific regions of your DNA to allow for glucocorticoid-induced transcription of Immediate-Early genes (IEGs), resulting in protein synthesis. These IEG proteins play critical roles in memory formation, though exactly how that works is still not fully understood. Interestingly and critically, the level of glucocorticoids released in the hippocampus directly relates to both how many IEG proteins are made and how strong of a memory you make of that stressful event. Through a process known as long-term potentiation (LTP), your brain changes and adapt to your own life experiences. Making memories of dangerous and stressful events is important because it can help keep you alive in the future by reminding you of past events. However, when these memories are too strong, sustained LTP activation of stressful memories can result in lasting symptoms of PTSD.

What can be done?

For people living with PTSD, there are effective, research-supported treatment options. Pharmacologically, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly used. This class of medication blocks the reuptake of serotonin, allowing for more serotonin to be present in the brain for a longer period of time. While decisions about how to treat PTSD should always be made in consultation with a physician or therapist, some common non-pharmacologic treatments are:

  • Prolonged Exposure
  • Cognitive Processing Therapy
  • Cognitive-Restructuring Therapy
  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

Conclusion

While this does offer some explanation for why some people do or don’t develop PTSD symptoms, much more research is needed. Science does not have all the answers but does have a dearth of unexplored questions and new avenues of investigation to help unearth more data and find answers.

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Prescribing Exercise

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Anxiety: who it effects and what is offered to help?

Anxiety disorders have been diagnosed to millions of American adults showing their effects in diverse ways to each who are affected. Disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and so many others effect around 40 million or 18.1% US adults each year. With such prevalence, there are a multitude of treatment medications that can be prescribed to those affected based on their needs. These include medications such as:

  • Benzodiazepines: https://pixabay.com/users/tumisu-148124/
    • Xanax
    • Librium
    • Valium
    • Klonopin
    • Ativan
  • SSRIs
    •  Lexapro
    • Prozac
    • Paxil
    • Zoloft
  • Buspirone
  • Tricyclics

There are even more options than the ones mentioned above, but the list of side effects that can occur with taking these medications may be an even more extensive list. Some of the most common side effects include nausea, dizziness, headaches, diarrhea drowsiness, and benzodiazepines can even become addicting and cause memory problems if used for too long. These medications work by chemically balancing neurotransmitters in the brain such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and GABA. Balancing these neurotransmitters helps to reduce the effects of anxiety with the risk of experiencing side effects.

The benefits of a non pharmaceutical treatment for anxiety

One other non pharmaceutical technique that can be utilized to help with the effects of anxiety disorders: exercise. Some doctors even try to “prescribe” their patients suffering from anxiety constant and consistent exercise as a co treatment that goes along with anti anxiety medications. Exercising has been shown in clinical studies to increase the amount of GABA or gamma-aminobutyric acid. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that inhibits neurons in the amygdala and its receptor modulators are down regulated in anxiety related pathways. Exercising is a natural way to increase the GABA concentration in the brain that has the chance of decreasing the effects of anxiety. When one experiences a traumatic event, glucocorticoid levels in the brain increase and interact with the MAPK pathway and initiate histone conformation that leads to gene transcription. The gene transcription creates event-associated memory consolidation. This can be modulated by the inhibition of dentate gyrus neurons by GABA. GABA can be naturally increased by exercising. When rats are exercised, they have been shown to come to the decision that their environment is safe quicker than rats who are not exercised. The sedentary rats roam their cage longer insinuating that they are unsure whether their environment is safe or not.

The effects of increased GABA caused by exercise has also been seen in humans through electroencephalograms and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. After doing some type of exercise, whether that be yoga, cycling, running, etc., GABA concentration was increased correlating to a decrease in the symptoms of anxiety. One study looked specifically at doing yoga and how this type of exercise could help to increase the amount of GABA seen in the correlating brain regions. The study found that yoga practitioners had a 26% increase in thalamic GABA and “yoga-naive” subjects had a 13% increase in thalamic GABA after a 60 minute yoga practice.

Although those with different anxiety disorders may need to seek out different methods to treating their anxiety, it seems as though that through more intensive research, prescribed exercise may become more common or at least more common as a co treatment along with medication to help to decrease one’s risk of experiencing the side effects of taking anti anxiety medications.

 

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A Piece of the Puzzle: Elk-1 Gene and Memory

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Have you ever wondered what your brain goes through in order for you to remember what you ate for breakfast this morning or what show you watched on Netflix last night? As you can probably imagine, there are multiple things that must occur (yes, in a sequential number of steps, too!) in order for us to form memories. The formation of memories can be compared to completing a puzzle, if you don’t have the correct number of pieces, you will either get a puzzle that is incomplete or multiple puzzles if there are too many pieces which can also be overwhelming. To help us understand a little more about the puzzle as a whole, let us begin to explore just one piece of it: The Elk-1 gene.

Inside the Brain

Time for some science! The Elk-1 gene codes for a transcription factor, which is a type of protein that is heavily involved in regulating transcription but also in other vital biological processes such as cell growth and inflammation. The role of the Elk-1 gene is largely associated with other fellow transcription factors that help gather signals that are given off inside and outside of a cell. These signals are then brought inside of the nucleus of the cell, which can be thought of as the control center that makes rules for the cell and body. Once Elk-1 has a phosphate group attached to it, it activates a histone complex that alters the structure of chromatids. This allows for transcription of specific genes resulting in memory formation and consolidation which is critical and can be explored more here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
/pmc/articles/PMC3060702/

How does this process even get started?

Some of you may be wondering, “is this gene always making memories for us?”. The answer is no, and this is probably for the better! Think of all the wasted energy and time your cells would go through if they would try to consolidate everything you looked at or thought about in a single day, every day! Our body does an incredible job at regulating processes, especially for something as important as transcription. For example, when a stressful event is induced in our environment, glutamate begins to accumulate by membrane transport proteins that will therefore let calcium inside of the cell. This leads to the MEK-ERK pathway each gaining a phosphate group which allows Elk-1 to become phosphorylated to start transcription regulation. The complete process, at much greater depth, can be found at the following link: https://www
.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00005/full

Looking Ahead

Does this mean researchers know everything about Elk-1 and the formation of our memories? No, not quite. There is still much to be understood about not only this individual piece, but with the puzzle as a whole. Although it has been pointed out how crucial the Elk-1 gene is, it is important to remember, “everything in moderation”. Studies have shown that too much expression or an unregulated expression of this gene can lead to increased anxiety and/or depression that can be found in brain tissue specifically in the hippocampal region. Understanding how memories are formed and programmed to stay in our brains is extremely important, especially in the context of being able to use that information to help individuals with stress, but each discovery seems to raise a dozen additional questions, therefore one must ask: Will we ever be able to complete the puzzle of the human mind?

 

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Relieving Anxiety: The Benefits of Voluntary and Forced Exercise

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Patients are often told by doctors that exercise is good for their mental and physical health. In fact, doctors will commonly recommend exercise as a treatment for anxiety. Anxiety is an intense emotional response resulting in the feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease. Anxiety isn’t necessarily just psychological, it can have physical characteristics as well. While most people suffering from anxiety want to feel better, not everyone either wants to exercise or has the time to dedicate to exercise. This can leave patients feeling obligated or forced to exercise. Therefore, leading to the question: Does forced exercise yield the same anxiety reducing benefits that voluntary exercise would?

Inside the Brain

Lets start by explaining how exercise reduces anxiety. First, GABA is a chemical in the brain that blocks certain communication between nerve cells. GABA plays a major role in modulating the effects of anxiety on responsiveness to stressful events. Therefore, when people voluntarily exercise, more GABA is released in the brain, which ultimately leads to reduced stress. Why is reducing stress important when making memories?

Anxiety and Memory Forming

Memory forming can be affected by anxiety. Stressful situations can be measured by looking at glucocorticoid hormones. These hormones are released into the hypothalamus to form memories. While experiencing anxiety, there are too many glucocorticoid hormones being released, resulting in the stronger memories. On the contrary, low levels of glucocorticoids will result in weak memory forming. In neuroscience, the consistent activity and strengthening of synapses, due to these hormones, are called long-term potentiation (LTP). When there are high levels of glucocorticoids, LTP is enhanced and forms many strong synapses. Compared to when there are low levels of hormones, LTP is suppressed and can’t form strong signals leading to weaker memories. This is important because exercise can lower stress levels resulting in balanced memory making.

Voluntary Vs. Forced Exercise

In one study, researchers looked at the behavior of rats. These rats were divided into groups – one group ran on a wheel whenever it chose to, while another group ran on mechanized wheels that rotated according to a predetermined schedule. The rats behaviors were then observed when they were put into an environment where they would freeze similar to “deer in the headlights”. The results of this experiment showed that the nonactive rats froze for longer periods of time compared to any of the active rats. These results imply that humans who perceive exercise as being forced — whether it be for health reasons or another — are likely still going to receive the same anxiety reducing benefits compared to people who voluntarily exercise. This being said, the feeling of being in control of ones own actions has its own health benefits outside of anxiety relief.  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2315291/Being-forced-exercise-reduce-anxiety-depression.html

Conclusion

Overall, anxiety can be a life consuming illness. If anxiety is not controlled it can affect many aspects of ones life including memory making, ability to sleep at night, ability to carry out ordinary daily tasks, and more. As it turns out, doctors are correct when they claim that exercise benefits mental and physical health. While there are other treatment options for anxiety, the first step to relieving feelings of anxiety is exercising. You can go here to read more about treatment options for anxiety: https://www.anxiety.org/treatments

 

 

 

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Fighting the Memory War: A Battle Between Remembering and Forgetting Trauma

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“Do you remember what happened?” is generally one of the first questions a person is asked after going through a traumatic event. This question can cause a great deal of distress but also confusion for most people who have endured trauma. They might start to panic at the idea of not remembering, this common form of “blacking out,” or perhaps they can only remember fragments of the memory, just quick flashes of what occurred. Others may relive the moments in vivid detail, thrown off by the intensity of the past trauma that they can’t seem to forget. To understand what determines the strength of a memory, we need to ask one question: What is going on within the body during these traumatic, stressful events?

Inside the Brain

When we experience stressful situations, our brain has to make a choice. It can create stronger, intense memories that will serve as a reminder to our brain and alert itself when a similar situation arises, or it can also block out memories, which is our brain’s way of protecting itself from the pain of remembering the memory and the emotions it elicits. Inside our brain, there is an area called the hypothalamus, which helps formulate our memories. There are hormones called glucocorticoids that are released into the hypothalamus when we experience stress, and this help us consolidate our memories of that time. When this signaling process goes wrong, that is when our memories become too vivid or are absent, resulting in anxiety and PTSD.

What Happens in Anxiety and PTSD?

Stressful situations elicit the glucocorticoid hormones to be released into the hypothalamus to form memories, but in anxiety and PTSD, there is a dysregulation within the system. In these cases, there is a high number of glucocorticoid hormones being released, and too many of them can result in the super strong memories that many people with anxiety and PTSD live through every day. A very low level of glucocorticoids will result in a weak memory being formed, or the memory not being formed at all. The level of hormones determines the strength of the memory through a process called long-term potentiation (LTP). LTP is what strengthens a signal to communicate to parts of the brain. When there are those high levels of glucocorticoids, LTP is enhanced and can form a collection of strong signals, but when there are those low levels of hormones, LTP is suppressed and can’t form strong signals, therefore resulting in a weaker, or absent memory. Now that we know how the background on whether memories are formed or not, how can you cope with a diagnosis of anxiety and PTSD?

Treatments

Can we really prevent traumatic events from happening? The answer would be no, but research suggests that there are ways to possibly prevent traumatic memories from even forming by injecting a glucocorticoid antagonist that would block those hormones from being released. This researched prevention method is a rather controversial topic. There are a variety of well-researched treatments and coping mechanisms available for these disorders like therapy, exercise, and pharmacological options like Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), which you can read more about here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/ssris/art-20044825

Understanding the neurochemical basis of what is happening during these stressful situations is incredibly important to move forward treatment options for those affected.

 

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Fall 2019: An Unexpected Adventure

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As I reflect on my semester of neurochemistry, I can’t help but think about all of the other things in my life and the way it has all come together. Two things really come to mind with this experience: growth and integration. I am all too familiar with living in the “science sphere” where everyone knows all the things you know and you get bogged down in reactions and complex names and endless facts to memorize. This semester taught me how to communicate this information with others.   I also took a course on healthcare law and ethics in which I was the only student well-versed in science. Having fresh knowledge on neuroscience issues allowed me to spread the information clearly and educate a different group of people. To me, this is what BREWing is about. Each person has their own unique experiences, and this was just one way I was able to share my unique knowledge to affect others in a way that responsible engages the world.

Let’s be honest. When I started blogging, I hated it. I want to learn and share information, but adapting to the new structure was so fundamentally different from my writing about science that it made for a rather steep learning curve. However, I loved the idea. I found new issues I was passionate about and now had a platform to share it. I have always loved learning, but I have accused college of stealing that love with arduous assignment and requirements. Neurochemistry definitely changed that. Each Monday, I looked forward to the class discussion where we talked about the article and questions we needed answered to better understand it. Between then and Wednesday, we each researched a topic, and this became my favorite part. I loved learning to teach others and really found a passion with this. I have also been working on an experiential learning project at Concordia where I am teaching some basic neuroscience to children, and I have learned so much in the process while fostering a passion for teaching others in a way that can positively influence the world.

I may actually continue blogging, even if just for myself. Life is a journey and pursuing medicine is a long and arduous road full of roadblocks. I think that’s something I want to remember, both for myself and for others pursuing the calling who haven’t had an easy go of it.

My newfound ability to better comprehend academic articles in a way that allows me to communicate information at different levels will be extremely beneficial in my future career. I plan to become a neurologist, and communicating well with my patients will be essential to my success. I plan to stay extremely educated about new treatments and issues and m ability to understand scientific writing and communicate it to my patients will be an everyday skill I now have plenty of access to.

Overall, this semester was challenging. I was stretched to learn in ways I hadn’t before and had to make changes to succeed. But, I can say it was one of the most influential semesters of my college education. I learned about things that really matter in my day to day life. I learned about disease treatment, healthcare barriers, and how research works. After learning all of these things, I learned to share them effectively whether that be blogging, presenting, or just having a simple conversation. I am extremely thankful to Concordia for providing me a diverse learning experience and helping me see that whatever the plan for my life may be, it will work out.

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Demystifying Schizophrenia

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Schizophrenia is a devastating diagnosis, largely due to its lifelong nature and lack of effective treatment options. The underlying mechanism of schizophrenia is still largely unknown, but new evidence suggests a pathway that may be causing schizophrenia. While there is still much more to learn, this research has greatly increased the chance of new treatment options. This research implicated a pathway known as the canonical Wnt pathway. This pathway is present in nearly all organisms, indicating that it is highly important for proper development.

A large degree of the complexity associated with Schizophrenia is the fact that it is a developmental disorder, but symptoms don’t appear until adolescence. This progression also suggests that the disorder is somehow associated with the frontal lobe as this is the most active area of the brain during adolescent development. GS3KB is an important aspect of this pathway due to its role in regulation of gene transcription. The dysfunction associated with Schizophrenia occurs when GSK3B is overactive and cannot regulate transcription properly. The pathway on the left is more often occurring on the left than on the right in the brains of people with schizophrenia, leading to dysfunction and schizophrenia symptoms.

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is characterized by a month or longer period of two or more of the following:

  • Delusions
  • Hallucinations
  • Disorganized Speech
  • Grossly Disorganized or catatonic behavior
  • Negative Symptoms such as flat affect

People often think of Schizophrenia as having vivid hallucinations and delusions but don’t often realize there are negative symptoms as well. Negative symptoms include flat affect, lack of social interest, and little motivation. These symptoms are especially common after use of anti-psychotic medications, because the positive symptoms of the disorder have been treated.

Schizophrenia treatment

Anti-psychotics are a common treatment for Schizophrenia, but they are far from perfect. Common side effects of Schizophrenia include:

  • Dry mouth
  • Stiffness and shakiness
  • Restlessness
  • Weight gain
  • Sleepiness and slowness
  • Sexual dysfunction
  • Constipation
  • Blurry vision
  • Uncomfortable jaw, lip, and tongue movements

In addition, the nature of the disease makes people less likely to adhere to their medication schedule. People start to feel better and don’t realize how much of an impact their medications make. Delusions may also convince people not to take their medications. New forms of anti-psychotics can be administered as injections, making adherence to medication less of a challenge.

Are people with Schizophrenia dangerous?

People who have not been exposed to mental illness and who lack education often assume that people with certain mental illnesses are more dangerous than the general public. This could not be further from the truth. People with mental illness are actually more likely to be victims of violence than people without. Schizophrenia is widely understood, but more education about it could lead to a collective understanding that people with Schizophrenia are still people who should be treated with respect, dignity, and compassion.

Community/Health

Use It or Lose It

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Pretty much everyone has heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” but did you know this phrase applies to your brain too. New research suggests that while the physical material such as neurons and quantity of brain matter can’t change, your ability to form new neural connections can be strengthened by use of your brain. Using your brain in this way is called enrichment and can be separated into social, mental, and physical components. These connections can prolong cognitive function and provide for better memory preservation. To understand this concept, there are two important terms to understand: brain reserve and cognitive reserve. Brain reserve is the ability of the brain to deal with aging in a way that prevents disease while cognitive reserve is the brain’s ability to adapt to new changes, especially through making new connections. There is however a strong relationship between the two. A recent study has shown that enrichment significantly influences cognitive reserve. Social, mental, and physical aspects. This experiment in mice involved enrichment of the environment to measure the impact on cognitive reserve. One of the largest impacts on cognitive reserve is plasticity.

Plasticity

Plasticity is the ability of the brain to make changes in response to new stimuli. Plasticity is especially important in restoring normal function after damage as well as simply learning new things. Young children are said to have greater brain plasticity and are more likely able to heal from neurological damage than adults. One mechanism for these changes is microglia. Microglia are specialized cells of the nervous system classically thought of as the immune cells of the brain. They are important for removing toxins to keep brain tissue healthy. More recently, microglia have been shown to also play an important role in normal neural development and plasticity. This role still needs greater research, but it shows promise in treating neurodevelopmental disorders.

Bilingualism

Bilingualism has been shown to benefit people by improving their ability to interpret multiple stimuli simultaneously. When a bilingual person is listening to speech, they hear both languages and quickly switch between both. A bilingual person uses attention and inhibition to executively control which language is active. This works like a muscle. As the person uses these executive functions more, their ability to control language increases. Bilingual people have shown better scores on tests that measure attention such as reading the color red in blue ink. There are structural changes to people who speak more than one language. People who are bilingual activate more brain areas when they are speaking which leads to greater focus and understanding.

Good News

The good news in all of this is that there are things you can do to improve your cognitive function. It is widely debated what enrichment would look like in humans, but the common themes can suggest some possible actions. Social relationships tend to benefit the brain, especially marriage. People who live alone are slightly more likely to develop dementia. Engaging in social connections is one way to protect against loss of cognitive function. From a mental perspective, things like education, puzzles, and board games have been speculated as possible ways to improve cognitive reserve. Physically, exercise has been shown to protect against loss of cognitive function. The mechanisms of each of these is still unknown, though engaging in stimulating activities can lead to both prevention of aging related deficits and a higher quality life in the meantime.

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