The first principle to follow is to recognize the importance of a healthy body/brain for optimal cognitive health.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified six key factors in maintaining a healthy body/brain (from Harvard Health Publishing, 2021):
1. Plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains
2. Regular exercise
3. Good sleep habits
4. Stress reduction
5. Social responsibility
6. Challenge your brain
Harvard researchers emphasize the importance of treating these factors together, as they reinforce each other and result in optimal brain and cognitive health.
The first four factors – diet, exercise, sleep and stress reduction – can be considered indirect supports for cognitive health. Together, they represent the principle of “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”
The last two factors, social interaction and brain challenge, more directly affect cognition.
Social interaction stimulates and challenges the brain in ways that solitary activities cannot. It relies on a number of skills, such as visual-spatial processing of faces and gestures, inferring the motivations of others, making decisions about behavior according to social norms, and so on.
Individuals with broader and more complex social networks appear to have larger or more developed amygdalae and related brain structures (Bickart, Wright, Dautoff, Dickerson, & Barrett, 2011).
The amygdala and related structures are deep brain regions that are key in regulating emotions and facilitating memory storage. This and similar studies suggest a strong link between social interaction and brain health in these crucial areas.
Maintaining or expanding your social network can therefore help ensure the overall health of your brain and cognitive abilities.
Challenging the brain with specific activities is the second, more direct tool towards cognitive health. In our next article, we will show examples of cognitive exercises and games.
Source: https://positivepsychology.com/how-to-improve-cognitive-function/
