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Source: ONE News
Adults who learn new tricks such as juggling can improve the
wiring of their brains, British scientists said.
The scientists said their research showed newly trained jugglers
had better connectivity in parts of the brain involved in movements
needed to catch the balls - and the improvement lasted for weeks,
even after they stopped practising juggling.
"We tend to think of the brain as being static, or even beginning
to degenerate, once we reach adulthood," said Heidi Johansen-Berg
of Oxford University's department of clinical neurology, whose
study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
"In fact we find the structure of the brain is ripe for change.
We've shown that it is possible for the brain to condition its own
wiring system to operate more efficiently."
White matter consists of bundles of long nerve fibres that conduct
electrical signals between nerve cells, while grey matter consists
of nerve cell bodies where the processing and computation in the
brain is done.
Scientists have already shown that grey matter function can be
improved by learning or experiencing new things, but improvements
in white matter have not previously been shown.
The scientists took two groups of 24 adults, none of whom could
juggle.
One group had weekly juggling training sessions for six weeks and was asked to practice 30 minutes a day.
The groups were scanned using special Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(MRI) diffusion before and after the six-week period.
After the training, there was great variation in skill levels, the
researchers said.
All of them could juggle three balls for at least two cascades,
but some could juggle five balls and perform other tricks.
But all the newly trained jugglers showed changes in white matter -
suggesting the benefit was down to time spent training and
practising rather than ability.
