Introduction

Dr. Denise Park’s Synapse Project was published right at the time I was completing my PhD (2013-14). It was the first study that systematically looked at how to engage your brain in ways that are relevant to real life (not just using computerized games in the lab and brain game apps on mobile devices). Dr. Park was interested in exploring what happened to people’s mental abilities and their brains when they engaged in real world mental challenges and stimulation. This work was incredibly important for me, as I finished my PhD, because my own research showed the limitations of brain games. Other scientific research was demonstrating similar findings: brain games help you get better at the game, but they do little to improve mental functions overall. So, I wondered – what else can we do to stimulate our brains and engage our minds?

About Denise Park

Dr. Denise Park is the creative and lead researcher on the Synapse Project. Denise Park received her PhD from the State University of New York at Albany. She joined the University of Texas at Dallas in 2008. In 2010, Dr. Park was the Founding Director of the Center for Vital Longevity. The Center for Vital Longevity brings together researchers who want to be understand how to maintain and improve the vitality of the aging mind. Dr. Denise Park is the Director of the Park Aging Mind Laboratory in the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her primary research interest is focused on assessing how changes in the aging brain related to brain activity and mental function.  

The Scaffolding Theory of Aging & Cognition

Note: a theory is a framework that helps us understand a phenomenon or pattern of behaviour that we observe in the world.

To help explain the Scaffolding Theory of Aging & Cognition, I pulled some information from a research article called “The Adaptive Brain” that Dr. Denise Park and her co-author Dr. Patricia Reuter-Lorenz published in 2009:

As we age, we see declines in mental functions. For example, we see reduced thinking speed, as well as decreases in different types of memory. We also see changes in the actual size of our brains. Our brain actually shrinks as we get older. One of the parts of the brain that we see these changes in is our white matter, which is the part of your brain that is responsible for the speed at which information is passed from one area of your brain to another.

In the face of these naturally occurring declines in mental functions, it is somewhat surprising that when we look inside our brains (using special imaging techniques), we see increases in brain activity in certain parts of the brain. The Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition was proposed because it helps to explain this discrepancy by suggesting that the increases in brain activity that we observe in older adults is an indication of an adaptive brain.

Specifically, as we age, our brain needs to compensate for the brain shrinkage that takes place by increasing activity in our frontal lobe (the part of the brain responsible for our higher-level thinking – such as attention switching or ignoring distractions). In other words, your brain is dynamic and instead of it simply functioning less optimally due to naturally occurring changes, your brain instead creates alternative routes to achieve particular cognitive goals. The scaffolding protects your cognitive functions as your brain undergoes age-related changes. The research suggests that your ability to create this scaffolding or alternative routes to achieve a particular cognitive goal is malleable and can be strengthened by leading a mentally engaged lifestyle.

Dr. Denise Park was intrigued by this scaffolding theory and wondered - Can we delay cognitive aging and change the brain by leading a deeply engaged lifestyle??

What drives neural and brain plasticity (your brain’s ability to change in response to your experiences)? What specific experiences contribute to changing your brain?

Dr. Denise Park believed that what contributes to and drives changes in how your brain functions is MENTAL EFFORT.

The Synapse Project

In order to test her assumption that mental effort drives changes in our brain, Dr. Park had to create a research study that provided people with an opportunity to engage in consistent mental effort. Dr. Park believed that it would be through this engagement that people would be able to activate specific parts of their brain that would ultimately lead to improved cognition and better memory.

Dr. Park predicted that engaging is sustain mental effort would improve memory in older adults.

What activities did Dr. Park use to create and cultivate sustained mental engagement in the context of a research study?

• ·QUILTING - A complex, abstract behaviour that involves a lot of mental rotation, and the ability to reverse geometric shapes. Participants also had to learn how to use software driven sewing machines.

• DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Participants had to learn how to use a camera. Participants were also computer novices that had to learn how to use computer software programs (e.g., Photoshop) and iPad apps for photo editing.

In both cases, participants were instructed by trained professionals.

Research Methodology

Participants were divided into six different groups and engaged in 15-hours of activity per week for 14 weeks.

Three High Challenge Groups

• Quilting

• Photography

• Dual: Quilting & Photography

Thee Low Challenge Groups

• Social: The social group mimicked a social club. People gathered in groups and engaged in activities together (e.g., cooking, watching movies, going on field trips), but no explicit teaching took place.

• Placebo: The placebo group worked at home on knowledge-based tasks (e.g., watch National Geographic or documentaries, crossword puzzles, listen to classical music)

• No Treatment Group: The no treatment group received no intervention at all.

Results

Here is a breakdown of the research findings:

• At baseline (before the 14-week intervention), the High Challenge group and the Low Challenge group had the same memory performance.

• After the 14-week intervention, the High Challenge group (quilting, photography, or dual) performed significantly better than the Low Challenge Group (social group, placebo, and no treatment group).

  • The largest benefits were seen in the digital photography group relative to placebo and no treatment control group.

  • The people who learned both quilting and photography (dual group) also did significantly better than the no treatment control group in terms of memory performance.

  • he people who only learned quilting were close to, but did not reach, significance.

• Dr. Park and her team also scanned people’s brains before and after the 14-week intervention. While in the brain scanner, people were presented with words and had to determine if the words referred to living or non-living things. There was an easy version of the task (LION vs. RADIO) and a harder version of the task (VIRUS vs. ZOMBIE).

• The hard version of the task takes longer to complete and requires more brain activation than the easy version of the task.

• The results from the brain scans showed similar patterns of brain activity before the 14-week intervention; but, after the 14-week intervention, the people from the high challenge group (quilting, photography or dual) showed increased brain activity during the more challenging version of the task

  • After 14-weeks of engaging in challenging activities (quilting, photography, or dual), people were better able to recruit the additional brain regions needed to complete the harder version of the task while in the brain scanner.

• Dr. Park and her team also revisited the research participants 1-year later to see if the changes in brain activation remained for those in the high challenge group. They found that while some of the brain changes were maintained 1-year later, many returned back to pretest levels. What this tells us is not surprising – the brain changes that results from engaging in challenging activities must be continuous for the benefits to last.

 Tips for Staying Mentally Engaged & Challenged

Dr. Park’s research taught us that mental effort is critical when choosing your engaging activities, so be sure to choose something that is CHALLENGING to you. It is equally important – in my view – to choose something that you are also interested in, because consistency is fundamental for any brain changes to be maintained.

This is a unique combination of traits.

1. Choose a challenging task that is of interest to you

The activity that you choose has to be challenging to stimulate your mind, but it also has to be something you are interested in, because you need to keep doing the activity – even (and especially) when it gets hard.

So, ask yourself a few important questions:

• What have you always wanted to learn more about?

• What hobbies or interests do you have that you can take to the next level?

 2. Be Intentional

Be intentional about how, where, and when you are going to be engaging in your desired activity.

Form a detailed implementation plan and rehearse your intentions in your mind and vividly imagine it all taking place.

Dr. Park did some work on the power of intention setting on goal achievement back in 2004 and showed that forming an implementation plan and vividly rehearsing your intentions in your mind improved initiation of a desired behaviour.

For example, if your challenging activity is to write a new song on the guitar – imagine it all happening with vivid detail:

• Imagine it is Saturday morning, and you just had your morning coffee. You head into your living room and sit in front of your big window with the sunlight shinning in. You start strumming your guitar and writing your music.  

3. Use environmental cues to promote target behaviour

 For example, leave a guitar pick next to the coffee maker on Friday evening; so, when you pour your morning cup of coffee, you are reminded that it is time to spend some time writing some new music.

 Of course, this is just an example, and the list of potential mentally challenging activities is endless and 100% dependent on your current skill level and interests.

4. Join the Brain Vitality Blueprint!

If you are looking for some help with crafting your own mentally challenging life or need an accountability partner to keep you on track, please check out the Brain Vitality Blueprint where we get to work one-on-one together to build your brain health journey. You can read all about the program by clicking here and book a call with me!

Conclusion

Engaging in consistent mental effort is fundamental to changing how your brain functions and can ultimately help to improve your memory. Be sure to find activities that are challenging to you, and are based on your own interests, hobbies as well as skill levels.   

To learn more about the work that Dr. Denise part is doing on the aging mind, you can visit her lab website by clicking here.