Three Exercises That Boost Brain Plasticity

Dr. Jonathan Fellus serves as the chief medical officer of Advanced NeuroCare, LLC. With more than two decades of experience in neuropsychopharmacology and neurorehabilitation, Dr. Jonathan Fellus guides his patients on ways to promote plasticity to improve and maintain brain health.

Neuroplasticity refers to the process of restructuring or reshaping neural networks and otherwise changing brain function to augment its performance and operations. Here are a few exercises that promote plasticity:

- Learn a new language. Regardless of your motivations for learning another language, the activity benefits the brain. According to a study from 2012, students who learned another language experienced an augmentation of gray matter, which is involved in processes related to memory, language, emotions, and attention.

- Dance. A great form of physical exercise, dancing also boosts cognition. After 18 months of a dance training program, participants between the ages of 63 and 80 saw an increase in volume of not only areas of the brain linked with neuroplasticity, but also the hippocampal region.

- Take naps. Treating the brain well entails not only exercising it, but also letting it rest. In addition to the seven to nine hours of nightly sleep required for peak brain activity, a short, 20-minute nap each afternoon can increase neuroplasticity and promote the growth of brain receptors, thus supporting encoding of memory. Turns out, the saying “sleep on it” is based in science.