Old knives don't have to be dull: Neurologist presents optimistic and encouraging view of brain function in middle and old age
[19 October 2003 - Jerusalem Post Internet Edition] An optimistic, encouraging view of brain function in middle and old age is presented by Prof. Robert Werman, a retired Israeli neurologist, psychiatrist and neurophysiology researcher who is himself a septuagenarian. Living with an Aging Brain: A Self-Help Guide for Your Senior Years, a 200-page softcover book just released by Freund Publishing House in Tel Aviv and London, offers plenty of evidence that exercising your brain can help keep your cognitive abilities in shape. ... To overcome downward mental trends, readers are advised to keep an active mind. ... He urges readers to spend time being creative and productive. ... "In essence, creativity is flexibility. There can be no new arrangement of flowers, no new gourmet dish, no original idea without first breaking the bonds of habit and custom." Elderly people who are fixed in their ways should try to meet new people and do new things, thus creating new brain connections and improving their mental flexibility. Werman encourages readers to exercise flexibility on a daily basis.