Cognitive Calisthenics:

15
Easy Ways To Keep
Your Mind Sharp

225 Bush Street 7th Floor San Francisco California 94104

1 800 514 3961 www.PositScience.com

CONGRATULATIONS
on completing the Posit Science brain health program.
Your participation is a generous contribution to the advancement of neuro-
science. More importantly, your completion of the program is a credit to
your commitment to staying active, engaged and independent throughout
your life.

It is our hope that, having worked though the activities in the program, you
will see real improvements in your ability to think quickly, understand fully
and remember clearly. It is also our hope that you will continue to engage
in activities that will enhance your brain’s health. From a scientific point of
view, the activities you choose must do the following to be considered
effective to building cognitive health:
1. Challenge you
2. Require you to focus
3. Encourage you to make subtle distinctions

Using these key points as guidelines, our neuroscientists at Posit Science

have suggested carefully chosen activities to help you get started on your
continued efforts to improve your brain’s health. In the following pages,
you will find descriptions of these activities, along with ample space for you
to write about your experience as you perform them. We encourage you to
do these activities regularly and record your findings, which will become
important to you as you review your progress.

In closing, I would like to thank you on behalf of our scientists, train-

ers and other Posit Science staff for your participation in the program.
I wish you lasting health and happiness as you continue on your
journey to a sharper mind.
Sincerely,

Michael Merzenich, PhD

—Chief Scientific Officer, Posit Science Corporation
Professor Emeritus, University of California at San Francisco
 1

Go on a guided tour of a museum or

another site of interest. Pay very care-
ful attention to what the tour guide
says. When you get home, try to
reconstruct the tour by writing an
outline that includes everything you
remember.

THE SCIENCE
Research into brain plasticity (the ability of the brain to change at
any age) indicates that memory activities that engage all levels of
brain operation—receiving, remembering and thinking—help to
improve the function, and hinder the rate of decline, of the brain.
 2

Choose a song with lyrics that you

enjoy but don’t have memorized. As
you listen to the song, try to hear
each word so that you can write the
lyrics down. Listen to the song as
many times as necessary! Then learn
to sing along with the song. Once
you’ve mastered one song, move on
to another!

THE SCIENCE
Developing better habits of careful listening will help you in
your understanding, thinking and remembering. Reconstructing
the song requires close attentional focus and an active memory.
When you focus, you release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine,
a brain chemical that enables plasticity and vivifies memory.
 3

Arrange to have you and a friend pay

close attention to a news show on
television. Then call your friend and
relate what you learned. Did you
cover most of it? Compare notes.
Then treat yourselves to a night out
or another special reward.

THE SCIENCE
This type of careful, focused listening should help you
follow and remember conversational speech more accu-
rately. And looking forward to that dinner reward will increase
the production of crucial brain chemicals like dopamine, which
contribute to learning, memory and good spirits!
 4

Sit in a place outside your house, such

as on a park bench or in a café.
Stare straight ahead and don’t move
your eyes. Concentrate on everything
you can see without moving your eyes,
including in your peripheral vision.
When you have finished, write a list of
everything you saw. Then try again and
see if you can add to your list!

THE SCIENCE
Scientists have shown that the neurotransmitter acetylcholine,
which is crucial to focus and memory, falls off with memory loss
and is almost absent in Alzheimer’s patients. This activity should
help you reinvigorate the controlled release of acetylcholine in
your brain through a useful visual memory task.
 5

Learning to play music is a fantas-

tic workout for your brain. If you’ve
ever thought about learning to play an
instrument, now is a great time!

THE SCIENCE
Playing an instrument helps you exercise many interrelated
dimensions of brain function, including listening, control of
refined movements, and translation of written notes (sight) to
music (movement and sound).
 6

Sharpen your brain’s neural pathways

by listening to a classical composition,
and dissecting it into the instruments
you hear. For example, where do the
cellos come in and out?

THE SCIENCE
Making fine distinctions in sound pitch and timbre is useful for
improving speech understanding and voice recognition. The
different “voices” of the instruments in an orchestra are akin to
the different voices of your friends and family.
 7

Do a jigsaw puzzle. Be sure to choose

one that will be challenging to you—
no fewer than 500 pieces, please!

THE SCIENCE
Mundane as they may seem, jigsaw puzzles can provide real
help for your brain. Completing one requires fine visual judg-
ments about where pieces belong. It entails mentally “rotating”
the pieces, manipulating them in your hands, and shifting your
attention from the small piece to the “big picture.” To top it off,
it’s rewarding to find the right pieces.
 8

Choose any multisyllabic word, for

example, memorize. Give yourself five
minutes to list as many words as you
can from the letters in the word (such
as me, memo, Rome, zero, memoir,
more, mere…) Choose different words
and repeat several times a day. Try to
beat your best score.

THE SCIENCE
This is another form of mental manipulation, in this case in the
language domain. It is one of many ways to try to improve your
mental speed and fluency. The better your score, the faster your
brain is operating.
 9

Practice categorizing. Think of a

category, such as Gardening Tools or
Animals Without Fur. List as many
items that fit the category as you
possibly can. The next day, see if you
can add to the list. Reward yourself if
you think you have created a fairly
complete list!

THE SCIENCE
This task is directed toward improving the speed and reliability
of your brain’s retrieval of words—of what goes with what.
Improving this ability should help you find those words that are
on the tip of your tongue. It’s all about quicker thinking! You
might also reward yourself (pump a little more dopamine!) if you
can complete a good list in a shorter period of time.
 10

Set your television volume down a

little from where you normally have
it set. See if by concentrating you
can follow just as successfully as
when the volume was higher. As
soon as that setting gets easy, turn it
down another notch!

THE SCIENCE
Think of this: You can’t get rid of radio static by turning up the
volume. Many people raise the volume because their listening
has become “detuned”—a little fuzzy. Now that you’ve
completed a listening training program, it’s time to turn down
the sound. Matching TV volume to a conversational level can
help you catch every word when talking with others.
 11

Do you know anyone who speaks a

different language than you do? Pick a
subject that might be interesting to
that person, such as their children or a
hobby. Learn some key words in that
person’s language that relate to that
subject. Then have a little conversa-
tion. (It won’t be very impressive, but
it will be a first step!)

THE SCIENCE
Though you may hear otherwise, our brains are biologically
capable of learning any language at any age. Learning a
language is good practice for your brain: it makes you listen
carefully and pay close attention to speech. These skills aren’t
just helpful in the new language—they improve the overall
functioning of the listening and talking areas of your brain.
 12

Reacquaint yourself with the ball.

Practice throwing and catching a ball
up in the air. You might even want to
take up juggling. Doing so can hone
your brain’s visual, tactile and hand-
eye coordination responses.

THE SCIENCE
Scientists have recorded improvements in the functional brains
of people who have mastered these kinds of sensory-guided
movement skills. Practicing skills that make good, fast use of
sensations from listening, vision and touch have widespread
positive impacts for an older brain.
 13

Take up crocheting and knitting.

These are great activities for building
your brain’s fine motor control pro-
cessing. But don’t be satisfied with
being a slow, careful artist—
constantly push yourself to become
faster and better.

THE SCIENCE
This is another activity that requires close attention for fast,
errorless performance. It is good exercise for the brain machin-
ery that controls and sustains attention and alertness. It can also
be highly rewarding to see your first sweater take shape, which
can increase the flow of brain chemicals that enable plasticity.
 14

Find an activity you can do by your-

self— such as completing a crossword
puzzle or playing solitaire—and take
it to the next level. See if by concen-
trating, and giving more effort to the
activity, you can succeed better or
more quickly.

THE SCIENCE
There is limited value in working at a game or exercise that you
can play without paying close attention. It is important to always
strive to “take it up a notch” to a higher and more demanding
level, where you re-engage the brain’s learning machinery.
 15

Learn to use your “other” hand. If

you’re right-handed, use your left
hand for daily activities. Start with
brushing your teeth left-handed, and
practice until you have perfected it.
Just for fun, try to build your way up
to more complex tasks, such as eating.

THE SCIENCE
This is an example of a class of exercises in which you know what
you’re supposed to achieve, but now must do it in a new and
demanding learning context. Doing such an activity can drive
brain plasticity efficiently, and on a large scale. Think of millions
of neurons learning new tricks as you finally establish better
control of that other hand!
 Cognitive Calisthenics:

15
Easy Ways To Keep
Your Mind Sharp

225 Bush Street 7th Floor San Francisco California 94104

1 800 514 3961 www.PositScience.com

©2008 Posit Science Corporation. All rights reserved. PSC0408COGCAL