Brain Science
Learning more about how the brain works helps us understand how we develop with age and how to help people who have diseases that affect the brain.

Healthy Aging

There are a variety of lifestyle factors that you can control to help maintain your brain health as you age. Physical exercise, sleep, a heart healthy diet, social connections and activities that challenge and interest you are each linked to better brain functioning in older adults.

Memory

There are multiple types of human memory, such as episodic, semantic and remote. Each type uses a different network in the brain, and therefore, one type can be affected by disease or injury while another type functions normally.

Speech & Language

Speech and language difficulty commonly affects individuals with dementia and other neurological conditions. Patients may experience deficits in the form of verbal expression (e.g., word-finding difficulty) or comprehension (e.g., difficulty understanding speech).

Behavior

Neurodegenerative disease can lead to changes in a loved one’s social interactions. These changes may occur because of structural and neurochemical changes in the brain that affect a person’s ability to process and act on information.

Executive Functions

The term executive functions refers to the higher-level cognitive skills you use to control and coordinate your other cognitive abilities and behaviors. Executive deficits have been associated with damage to the most forward areas of the brain in the frontal lobes (located just above your eyes), as well as the cortical and subcortical structures that connect to the frontal lobes.

Movement

The motor neuron system is divided into upper and lower divisions, based on whether they are in the central or peripheral nervous system. Motor neuron disease (MND) affects motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, the brain stem (which sits on top of the spinal cord) and the cerebral cortex.

Sleep

Our sleep patterns can change as we age. Many older people tend to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier than they did when they were younger. Having good sleep is important for us to create new memories, clear the brain of protein build-ups and maintain good levels of immune functioning, among other functions. There are things you can do to help ensure a good night’s sleep and get the brain benefits of rest.

Art & Creativity

Creativity combines elements of emotion, planning and sensory perception. Furthermore, creative expression can involve linguistic, graphic and motor skills as well.