THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MENTAL FITNESS WITH AGING

Many studies have shown that the brain is capable of enormous change and reorganization as we age, and is in fact engaging in such change on a daily basis. This body of research forms the science of neuroplasticity.

Another critical area of neuroscience research has investigated specific factors that protect you from the effects of brain aging and memory disorder, leading to the development of what researchers call a cognitive reserve.

Researchers have also investigated several forms of computerized cognitive exercise and measured the effects on the participants' mental fitness.

Although in the past, the EEG was primarily used as a diagnostic tool in neurology, in the past three decades, neuroscientists have developed sophisticated quantitative methods to analyze the electrical activity captured in the EEG. These methods reveal patterns of brain activation and communication that researchers have linked to many dimensions of mental functioning and fitness. Quantitative EEG brain mapping has also documented the changes in the EEG that are predictive of cognitive decline and dementia in the neuroscience of brain aging.

Research has also shown that many of the very same patterns of brain activation and communication that are linked to age related cognitive decline and to memory disorders of aging can successfully be altered through EEG guided brain training, also known as EEG biofeedback.