Page 43 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

The Intelligent Mind • 27

neuron at birth, and with proper stimulation, this rapidly in-
creases to 18,000 connections per neuron after about six
months. Stimulation, including touching, speaking to the
baby, and presenting different images, helps the brain in-
crease efficiency and select correct sites. Research demon-
strates that babies who are not stimulated have brains 20
8
percent to 30 percent smaller than normal. This process of
stimulation and mental reaction is much like fine-tuning a
station on the old-style radio dial: If the message gets close
to the proper site, but not exactly where it needs to be, the
result is not as clear as if the tuning were exact. Each time
the message is sent, the tuning becomes more effective, un-
til at last, with sufficient testing of the connections, the sig-
nal is processed clear and free of static.
From birth, the baby learns to be efficient at transferring
auditory, visual, and/or kinesthetic information. As you
read to a child and point out the words, you are stimulating
the auditory and visual aspects of learning. Taking a child’s
hand and tracing the letters reinforces the kinesthetic quali-
ties. It is important that the child is exposed repeatedly to all
the learning preferences in order to fine-tune the circuits
used for each technique (more on that in just a bit). The
more techniques the child can call upon during the school
years, the more likely the child will be considered a success
in the traditional school setting. The traditional school set-
ting primarily supports visual and auditory learners.
As the brain learns what the correct representations are
and which paths are most efficient at transmitting this in-
formation, it keeps the most-effective pathways and prunes
the less-efficient ones. Connections, which are used on a reg-
ular basis and thus become fine-tuned, are retained, while
other connections, which are inefficient or not used at all,
are eliminated. As many as 600 connections may be elimi-
9
nated per second during this pruning period. After the
synapses and axons are operating correctly, the efficiency of
the mental processing is dependent on genetic, environ-
mental (including nutritional and sociological), psychologi-
cal, and educational factors. 10